Friday, June 8, 2012

isaiah 55

Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.


Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
    hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
    My steadfast, sure love for David.
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
    a leader and commander for the peoples.
Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
    and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
    for He has glorified you. 


Seek the Lord while He may be found;
    call upon him while He is near.
let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

 
  
For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are My ways higher than your ways
    and My thoughts than your thoughts.


For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,


making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth;
    it shall not return to Me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
 
 

"For you shall go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,



    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”


thought it might be nice to post one of my (and my husband's!) favorite chapters of Scripture. hope it is a blessing to you today and a reminder of God's GOODNESS, faithfulness, and steadfast-forever-kind-of-love. all pictures are mine-- from various adventures i've had with the Lord. if you want to know more about the stories behind them, feel free to let me know. :)  God's blessings on you today!

Monday, June 4, 2012

a much-needed break

ohhhhhh vacation.

*sigh*.

the Dr. and I were able to get away for a while last week; we had the most glorious time on our getaway in Saugatuck, Michigan.  enjoy these photos and start planning your own getaway *today*!  (we even got our B&B on a Groupon -- totally affordable!!!!) :)

walk/hiking along in Saugatuck Dunes State Park!
look how the trails are sandy!
after a 30-45 minute walk or so, up some pretty intense hills... you FINALLY get to the top of this sandy hill and it's like a choir sings, "Hallelujah!!!" and you see THIS.  lovely, lovely Lake Michigan and a wonderful sandy beach! :)

chillin' at the dunes! :)
all of the grass at the Dunes State Park was planted BY-HAND by Michigan State students, several years ago!  we learned that the grass is much of the reason that the dunes stay in place and don't shift around!!




Saugatuck is a center for all kinds of artists to do and sell their work!  there are beautiful things EVERYWHERE in the city!

see the large boat in the background? on the last day we were there, a large crowd of people was gathered simply to watch this boat get pulled out of the mud!  apparently it had been stuck all winter-- and a bunch of tugboats & the fire department and other crews were all there just to pull it out!! --and literally everyone came to watch! haha oh small town life! :)
our sweet little B&B - the Twin Gables Inn!
it was so WONDERFUL to watch a sunset with my love :)


what a wonderful time in Saugatuck!!!!  we praise God for the opportunity to get away and thank Him for all the much-needed time we had together. :)