Friday Foto Friends and the Final Photo A Day Challenge for July

Happy Last Day of July!! Another Glorious way to start the day!!

 

When I see the sunbeams reaching out from the sun into the skies, I think of these verses from Psalm 19:

Psalm 19:1-6

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

2 Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

4 Their line has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

6 Its rising is from one end of heaven,

And its circuit to the other end;

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

It's definitely going to be another hot day, but we were refreshed with some good rains yesterday evening, and there is the promise of more tonight and throughout next week. I sure hope they are right.

So I have come to the end of the July photo-a-day challenge, and today's challenge is to "choose your own theme."  That shouldn't be too difficult for me! I am always choosing my own theme even when I'm supposed to do other stuff. LOL.

I woke up with a few ideas in my head, and then some things got kind of rearranged as the morning progressed.  So now it is a kind of mixed bag of thoughts and ideas. So please come along for the ride and enjoy the journey through time and space with me, okay?

I think I'll start out with the most recent photos, just taken a few minutes ago after we took a little ride down a dirt road (no pictures of that), and after last night's rain, we ran through a few mud puddles, so we had to make a special detour on the way home...can you guess where?

Yes, if you guessed the car wash, you would be correct. I just thought the patterns of water on the windshield looked pretty cool. (And I am thankful my hubby can still steer the car into the carwash correctly so that I don't have to do that!!)

This made me think about this Bible verse... (1 Corinthians 13:12)

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Right now in our lives we can't really see very far beyond this moment. We think we know what's coming up, or we have plans for what we hope will happen, but we truly can't see beyond this very minute, and things could change "in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye..." (1 Corinthians 15:52). Therefore we should always be ready to meet Jesus at any moment.

That reminds me of these verses in the book of James:

James 4:13-15 NKJV

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

One thing hubby and I did this week was practice a song that we are planning to sing  (Lord willing!!) this Sunday morning at church. Here's the song being sung by the man who actually wrote the song, Jim Hill. (although he didn't sing the first verse in this version, but we will sing the whole song on Sunday).

1. There is coming a day

When no heartaches shall come,

No more clouds in the sky,

No more tears to dim the eye;

All is peace forevermore

On that happy golden shore,

What a day, glorious day that will be.

Chorus

What a day that will be,

When my Jesus I shall see,

When I look upon His face,

The One who saved me by His grace;

Then He’ll take me by the hand,

And lead me through the Promised Land,

Oh, what a day, glorious day that will be.

2. There’ll be no sorrow there,

No more burdens to bear,

No more sickness, no pain,

No more parting over there;

And forever I will be

With the One who died for me,

Oh, what a day, glorious day that will be.

Chorus (Twice)

It's been a while since we have sung a duet in church, so I pray that God will be with us and help us both to have a strong voice to sing, and that this song will be a blessing to those who hear it, and that the Lord will be glorified with this music.

Now these next pictures have a story.  Those of you who know me know that I am not really a fan of roosters (or "free-range chickens" either, for that matter).  When I was about 4 years old and living on our farm in Pennsylvania, we had chickens and roosters. One day I wandered down to the 'corn crib' to get some corn to feed the cows. I don't know why I was out there by myself, but somehow I was. Anyway, when I got down there away from the house, all of a sudden this big old mean rooster came running out at me with his ugly and dangerous "spurs" and started to attack me.  I started screaming bloody murder, and I guess my mother heard me and came running with a broom and shooed that big old mean rooster away from me. I understand that we had stewed rooster for supper that night, but that he was rather tough. LOL.   Anyway, to this day I am not one to get very close to chickens and especially not roosters.  

So, the other day we were with our "kids", and we had a reason to visit this place, not knowing there would be free range chickens and roosters running around.  Thankfully they were "friendly" and did not attack us.  I am quite proud of myself for not going into a panic when I stepped out of the car and this fellow came running around the house to greet me.

There were actually two of them...double trouble!

I am thankful they had no interest in me whatsoever! Praise God!

I'm not going to say that now I am ready to go out and start raising chickens, but at least I survived that moment!

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, (or woman!) I put away childish things.  (1 Corinthians 13:11)

Well, friends, I think this is probably enough for today. I had some other ideas for pictures, but decided to wait for another time and not overburden you with too much stuff.  It's taken me all day just to get this done! LOL.  

Tomorrow begins a new month, and brings us closer to those blessed cooler autumn days, even though for us here in North Central Florida, it will be late October before we begin to really feel a bit cooler. Still, it's encouraging to know we are getting closer! 

 

I hope that you will have a blessed and wonderful weekend.