Our church had a ladies dessert night last night. Bel Thompson gave her testimony and sang some of her beautiful songs. She reminded everyone of how special each of us are and how much God loves us. Which of course is true and I enjoyed it very much. 

I did think this though;

It is not just about love.

Love is only one of the first baby steps.

Our journey with God is so much more

our life, in EVERY way should be dedicated

devoted to God

ALL we do, say, think, should be for

the GLORY of God

I scribbled this onto a serviette while I was listening to one of her songs. 
Feel free to use the wallpaper if you wish, but for personal use only.

Here is the memory verse I am learning this fortnight... I totally forgot to even make a wallpaper for the last one... This verse is particularly hard because my whole family learnt it in another version.... it is about the first memory verse I ever did. I remember......  the "To Do" verse...... which God prepared in advance for us TO DO! what a long time ago.

Have you memorized any bible verses?

Are you learning any memory verses now?

What is you favourite bible verse?

This fortnight the verses I am learning are Psalm 119:9 and 11. We need to be on guard and live according to God's word. To live according to it we must know what his word says, which means we need to read it, and more so to study it, to try understand it. Even reading a tiny bit a day is helpful, and much better than not at all.

Joshua 1:8

but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

As this verse says, to do as God will we need to know what it is that he wills. Also you can see that a promise follows on from that.

 For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

The word of the lord is perfect and revives us. It is sure and makes us wise. God's word is right and brings joy, it is pure and enlightens our hearts. Store up Gods word in your heart. So you may live for him and not fall into sin. The Bible is such a precious gift we have been given from God, don't ignore it.

This is a slightly edited photo I took a few nights ago. It had a 30sec exposure and I had the camera sitting in a cleft in the rock. I froze while getting it... Ok that is an understatement... oh whatever.. apparently the others, who had been walking around and not trying to sit perfectly still on a cold rock (or was it an ice-cube) thought the temperature was fine... I disagree.

After giving a little more exposure to the photo in some areas to make the big stars look more than a bigger white dot and "fixing the blemishes" it looks quite nice. Actually I didn't fix much... anything... I added a few more stars...well duplicated the big star, and wallah! there it is.

Daniel 12:3 

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

The stars are just so beautiful and there was so much I couldn't capture. The place I took the photo from was lit only by moon and star. W were far enough away from civilization to see more stars than normal and the silvery milky way stretched across the sky.

Psalm 8:3-4

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

    and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet he does care for us, he put the stars there to proclaim his greatness to us, and for us to enjoy! Isn't our God amazing?

He is risen indeed! What wonderful joy this brings those who belong to him. The life we are living now is not the life we were designed to live, we were designed to live a life with God, but now mankind lives in a fallen world. As C.S.Lewis said “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

We are indeed made for a better world and one day after Jesus returns he shall take us there. But for now we should glorify God wherever we are. Everything in creation was designed to glorify him and to point back to God. We are here to make HIS NAME great. Jesus is what we were designed for, so in him we can be satisfied. 

We were all slaves to sin but a King, The King, gave up his life to save us, while we were still rebelling against his rule! Romans 5:8 "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." If that isn't amazing than what is? Because of the cross we can have the relationship we were designed to have. Because of the cross we can one day have the life we were designed to live, and live it for eternity. 

Jesus hit the wall of sin and knocked it flat. HIS death brought about the death of death. Death could not hold him, he is risen indeed! If you have Jesus, you have life! And not just any life but a completely new life. We are God's cherished children. John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." He has gone and we are waiting for his return. So as we wait, let us not grow weary in glorifying him!

The above was written from my sermon notes I have taken the last few weeks. Here is a link to the Easter sermon series our church did this year. All sermons can be downloaded in various different ways. And if you follow the link you will see the same photo as the sermon cover as the above one (which can be used as a desktop wallpaper) because they are the same, and I make all the 'art' for our sermons and ads. So I have not stolen the photo from anyone, tis mine.

God meant for Jesus to go to the cross, Jesus meant to go. The cross did not thwart God's plan, it was the main part of it. It was not an easy thing for him to do but it had been planned form the beginning, Jesus said in Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 

God's plan is perfect. The cross is part of it. The part that saved us and forgave all of our sins. God also has a plan for each of our lives and it is perfect. We only need to surrender it to him and he has promised to guide and protect us. When things don't seem to be going as you think God should plan it, know God is in control and at first some of the things that happen don't seem as if they could be for good. But God makes all things come to good in the end. 

And one day he will bring this world, that men turned sinful, to good. It will be purged by fire and we will live in a new heaven and earth, a perfect one, all because of what Jesus did on the cross. 

His love is deeper and wider than the ocean, and the ocean is a vast body of water. But God is beyond measuring and so is his love. All we can do is find big things to attempt comparing him too. They fall utterly short. God is omnipresent  therefore his love is omnipresent too!  He is everywhere, all present, always present.


Psalm 118:4
Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures for ever.” 

So don't forget it. 

We are God's children. Now I think that is an amazing thing, if we are his children he is our father. And our heavenly fathers love is so much greater than even our earthly fathers love. Not all of us have amazing earthly fathers, but I think I do. They try and do what is best for us, but God always knows and always does what is best for us. 

Sometimes we need to go through harder times, if we allow, these times can show us that God is the only one we can rely on. We need to throw ourselves on him, and rely on him. This is easier in the times when we know we can not do it ourselves. It can at the least make us more joyful that we need not suffer most of the time. In comparison to some our sufferings are small.

Not only is he the God of love though, he is also a jealous God. He wants our worship, love, he want our life. He is to be feared, but a respecting sort of fear. Not a turn and flee sort of fear. 

Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom

He is not to be treated as someone who just gives out love no matter what. Don't get me wrong here. He does give love and forgiveness to his children no matter what, but not all are his children, not all are chosen. He is Loving but also so much more; a powerful, jealous, angry God. 

Just like Aslan in Narnia: “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

He is not tame, he is God. Who God truly is, we shall not, I think, be able to ever comprehend, until -and maybe not truly even then- we meet him face to face. What a glorious day that will be.

The more I try to think of things to be thankful for the more I seem to be able to think of! God made every thing, so as long at any thing is left I suppose I will be able to find something to be thankful for. And that is another thing to be thankful for! I am thankful that I can be thankful. Even if every time I type thankful I put two Ls on the end and have to get rid of them. Well I'm thankful I noticed. Unlike the other day when I said it was the first of October.... and it wasn't until a few nights later when I realized it was November. (and I changed it) Thank God I can edit Posts! 

2nd Thankyou God:
~For books
~That I have sisters to read books with and share funny bits
~for the fun of staying up really really late reading
~That we had a really nice day with other home schoolers yesterday
~ That you came and freed us
~That you love us no matter what
~That we are your daughters and part of your family and bride the church.

3rd Thankyou God:
~That we are made in your Image
~That you govern the seasons
~For air conditioning 
~For the gift of singing and that I am able to sing at church
~For my chooks
~For how you grow us in suffering
~That I could see a spoonbill this morning and get a photo of it (don’t see them often) and the Dollar-bird

4th today I was going to say trees, but since specific prayer is good I decided to try and think of specific things about trees. I ended up with a few more than seven! 
Thankyou God for trees:
~For the beautiful shade they make that is so nice to stand in
~And friends to sit in them with
~And all the tasty fruit and berries and edible things that grow on them
~ For deciduous trees and the amazing colours they turn in Autumn then how they appear dead until spring when they burst into blossom and the tiny leaves start to uncurl then on into summer then they are green and lustrous again.
~Like our ornamental plums which have red and dark green leaves and look so pretty
~And the intricate patterns the leaves shadows make 
~ And how their bark peels off leaving the trunk underneath all lovely and smooth and looks green, gold or silver
~And how the bees flock to the sweat scented and pretty coloured blossoms 
~ Especially casuarina trees as they sway in the wind and make an almost musical whispering
~ For the majesty of old gum trees as their twisting branches reach way up towards heaven 
~ And how they grow up in forests which have little glades in them. 
~ For the feel of different trees, like the smooth spotted gums and the rough ironbark. 

5th Thankyou God:
~ That some old friends are coming over today and we will be able to be with them again
~ That I am one of those that you in your grace chose to save even though you didn’t have to
~That when we repent you forgive
~That there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus
~ For the lovely cool day today
~That I have a really lovely teacher (my mum)
~For my little brothers and how cute they can be... some of the time

I still keep typing thankful with two Ls..... (except then) And I am thankful that I can laugh at myself. Drat I did two Ls again. *giggles*

After making the "Truth" wallpaper I decided to make two more that sort of go with it. I also made up the little verse things on these ones.

I only realized that my camera could take sepia photos yesterday. While I was reading a book (small and short) on macro photography that came with the camera. So naturally I had to try, that is one of the photos I took. 

The room was fairly dark and outside the sun shone making it extremely hot and bright. Long exposure and a steady hand and I got the photo. 

"The Way" photo is a shadow of a piece of paper on the road, no I did not get squashed by a car because I am here writing this. and now I think I am finished writing this.

One more thing, our family is on holidays (we are not doing any school) this week. Instead I am reading Systematic theology, and I'm really looking forward to today's forty three pages of it.... It's only one chapter.....

I wrote a poem the other day . It didn't really work. But I really liked two lines of it "His words are not just simply true they are truth itself". So I had to do something with them. I also took this photo yesterday ...I think. Tis very hard to catch birds in flight so I am really happy with this shot. BTW the bird is a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo.

I suppose the 'sulphur' part of; Sulphur Crested Cockatoo comes from sulphur being yellow. Other than that there are not many similarities. When Sulphur burns it emits a blue flame.... I have not tried burning Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (will henceforth refer to as SCC) but I do not think it will burn blue, more likely black. Sulphur melts at 115.2 °C... I think a SCC would cook but not melt. Molten Sulphur is red but as I said before I don't think a SCC would melt easily, twould be black. Sulphurs biggest use is in agriculture to give nutrients to plants, whereas a SCC destroys plants. They bite off small branches and ring bark big ones, so that in wind like we have been having recently they fall down. This sometimes leaves hollows that the SCC can nest in. SCC also seem to like to destroy sunflowers....we have even lost some we grew under netting. Sulphur is insoluble in water. In this case I think the SCC would drown. which would not be very nice, they are such beautiful if cheeky birds. Sulphur is used in concrete and asphalt.... well lets just say SCC is not. How in the world did I get to that?

Stop I put in a complaint! You can't do this to me!

An interesting thing about sulphur: In the 1800s, mothers in Britain often gave their children a spoonful of sulphur and molasses as a spring tonic. Apparently it isn't poisonous....still. Eating a SCC might me.... Indigenous Australians could have though.....

I do not see why they should be called Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. Why not Banana Cockatoos? Then you only need to write two words, but of course three things look better to the eye. So it could be Banana Top Cockatoos. Their crests are shaped and coloured like a banana. Or Lemon Crested Cockatoos...or... id better stop this could get crazy.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoos are meant to eat; berries, seeds, nuts, bark and roots, they also seem to want to eat other things too. At least the SCC chew on other things like; bird feeders, gutters, rocks (yes they are strange birds), wires and probably anything else that is slightly edible looking (or that people would find it annoying to have chewed on). Sometimes a large flock of them will settle all over a tree, and make it look as if white flowers had just blossomed. Really what is happening is things are being destroyed. If one walks underneath a tree covered in SCC you instantly become a target, twigs, nuts, bark and other things will probably start falling on and all around you.

Apparently female SCC can be told apart from males because the females have red-brown eyes and the males have darker brown eyes. I must have only ever got close to male birds though, their eyes look black to me. So basically the male and female birds can't be told apart. 

And this was meant to be a short post...... I think I got rather carried away. Their eyes do look black!

I had a bit of fun mucking around with this, I used Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, two photos I took and a bit of imagination. Also I suppose I got the original idea from Zicmak’s bookshelves. Mine are rather different though, and not entirely empty.

A longer one for those with longer screens....... If you want to use it

A smaller one.......that I used

What it looked like when I used it

Since we have two family computers and one laptop the wallpapers could be a controversial issue. But they aren’t really, my sisters like the wallpapers from the KBR (So do I, but I want to use one’s I make.) I mostly only use one computer though, so I chose the wallpapers for that one and my sisters the other one, which seems to work. The boys are not old enough to care yet.... Could be a problem if they do.

The Bird in the photo is a Little Corella.