Friday Foto Friends~Blazing Star

 I saw my first "Blazing Star"  of the season blooming yesterday:

You can click here for more information: https://flawildflowers.org/flower-friday-liatris-spicata/

This one lone Blazing Star, or "Dense Gayfeather", was standing all alone along the road where we walk.  When I see the purple wildflowers starting to bloom along the road, I know that summer is slowly coming to an end and fall will be around the corner. 

I haven't found out what these little purple flowers are yet, but they also have been blooming lately where we walk:

It never ceases to amaze me to see how these wildflowers bloom late in the summer and fall, and then they die and drop their seeds into the ground and lie dormant for a year, and then next year around the same time they will rise again from the earth and bloom for a season, year after year, just like clockwork.

 

I also saw this white "mushroom" growth on this dead tree that was cut down:

Some type of fungi growing on the tree, so apparently what was dead is still providing life for something:

This is on that same cut tree that I may have told you I thought looked like it had a baby growing

inside: 

 

And now, as it lays there on the ground, new life is springing up all around it...new tree growth appearing from the death of the old...

Likewise these other small trees that were cut down and left to rot...new life is rising out of their decay:

As I was writing this above, I felt a recurring theme emerging of "new life out of death".  As with many (most) of my posts, I don't prepare them ahead of time or even think about what I am going to write until I start writing.  I may have an idea like with my "Wednesday Treasures", of what pictures I will share and what the 'story' might be....but even there, oftentimes something develops as the pictures come together and the message begins to flow.  It's not necessarily something I knew would happen...it is often spontaneous and extemporaneous. 

And so it is today.  I honestly didn't even know what pictures I was going to share until I sat down at the computer this morning around 6:00 a.m. But here is what happened:  As I started pulling pictures that I've not yet shared from my "files" from the past week or so, new life was springing up from the old.  I stopped around 7:00 a.m. to go and read our morning devotions and said to myself that I would finish this later because I wasn't too sure where this was going. Then I sat down to read from our daily devotional book, and the title of the passage for the day was "Dry Bones, Dormant Seeds".  And the key verse for the day was:

"So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, 

and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army."  Ezekiel 37:10

This was talking about the valley of dry bones that was a sign of the restoration of Israel. You can read more about this in Ezekiel 37.

And in our devotional a little story was shared about some seeds that scientists had found frozen in a "squirrel's burrow in Siberia" for thousands of years. The story goes on to state that "incredibly, researchers got those seeds to sprout and even to produce white flowers!"

And then we read from Matthew 22:23-33, and the key verses spoken by Jesus there were:

31.  "But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,

32.  "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

And then those verses led me to thinking about these powerful words of Christ in John 11:25-26, where He is speaking to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, just prior to calling Lazarus forth from the grave four days after he had died and was buried:

25.  "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  

26.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

And so the message here for me and for you today is that God is able to bring new life out of that which was seemingly dead.  That could be speaking to us personally about situations in our lives right now...family and personal relationships, faith, employment, health situations, world crisis. 

These words give us great hope. 

Certainly, the most important part of that message is for us to know that our earthly life here is not the end when we die. For those who are in Christ, we will experience new life, which is eternal. Jesus told Martha that whoever lives and believes in "Me", shall never die. 

John 3:16 tells us:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

And like Jesus asked Martha in John 11:26, we need to ask ourselves:

"Do you believe this?"

This could be the most important question for us to answer ever. In fact, it is.

So I will leave it there for us to each ponder and reflect upon, and hopefully be able to respond in the affirmative.

Amen.

Now, a couple more pictures.  I've told you this past week about our new "handyman", "Billy".

Well, Billy has been here working on another major project for us this week, and I asked him if I could take his picture, and he said "It might break your camera, but go ahead."

So here is "Billy the Handyman"

I told you he was a little rough around the edges, but we are discovering that he has a heart of gold,

and we thank God for sending him to us.

Here is a sneak preview of what he is working on. I will let you know when he is finished.

Now I will close with these pictures from our sunset the other night:

At first we thought that cloud looked like a "Scottie Dog", but it changed rapidly into a lion.

I found this description of  Jesus as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah on this following link:

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/how-is-jesus-lamb-of-god-lion-of-judah.html

Jesus Is the King of Kings

In the New Testament, the imagery of the lion is further fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who was prophesied to be the “root of David” (Isaiah 11:1-2) and his “branch” (Zechariah 3:8).

In the book of Revelation, the apostle John is also given a vision of the heavenly throne room in which the one seated on the throne is handed a scroll sealed with seven seals (Revelation 5:1-3). When no one is found worthy to open the scroll, John begins to “weep” (Revelation 5:4). This is when one of the elders says to him, “stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5).

This is clearly referring to Jesus Christ, the Root of David and Lion of the tribe of Judah, who is worthy to open the scroll for being the one to conquer sin and death through his work on the cross (2 Timothy 1:10, Isaiah 25:8, 1 Corinthians 15:25-26, Hosea 13:14).

Here the true power of the King of kings (Revelation 19:16) and Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14) is revealed as a lion who is majestic, fierce in love, and worthy to be called king.

Kind of goes along with our previous verses.  This same Jesus, the "Resurrection and the Life", is also the one and the same, Jesus Christ, "The Root of David and Lion of the tribe of Judah."  

All the more reason to answer the question Jesus asked Martha above:

"Do you believe this?"

I hope your answer is a clear and resounding, "Yes!".

Have a blessed Friday, my friends.