#199

Golden sunrise...

'that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water' (2 Pet. 3.5)

#198

Sun rising later to cooler mornings...


'Greet one another with a kiss of love.' (1 Pet. 5.14)

#197

'you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knoweldge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' (2 Pet. 5-8)

#196

Sleepy clouds passing through just before dawn...

'And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen , and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.' (1Pet. 5.5-11)

#195

Tired clouds dispersing after a full day's frolic in the pre-Autumn sun...

#194

Amazing sky... like mythical creatures scattering helter-skelter...

#193

Clouds looking foreboding at sunrise, but they have actually dispersed somewhat since into wisps...

'Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.' (1. Pet. 4.8)

#192

'Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.' (1 Peter 3.8)

#191

Beautifully clear pre-Autumn sky...

'Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation -- if indeed you have tatsted that the Lord is good.' (1Peter 2.1-3)

#190

Sparkling clear morning...

'Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."' (1Peter 1.13-16)

#189

Sparkling clear night...


'For a very long time I considered low self-esteem to be some kind of virtue. I had been warned so often against pride and conceit that I came to consider it a good thing to deprecate myself. But now I realize that the real sin is to deny God's first love for me, to ignore my original goodness. Because without claiming that first love and that original goodness for myself, I lose touch with my true self and embark on the destructive search among the wrong people and int he wrong places for what can only be found in the house of my Father.' (Return of the Prodigal Son -- Henri Nouwen p. 107)

#188

Last blush of the day...


'Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not "How am I to find God?" but "How am I to let myself be found by him?" The question is not "How am I to know God?" but "How am I to let myself be known by God?" And, finally, the question is not "How am I to love God?" but "How am I to let myself be loved by God?" God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home. In all three parables which Jesus tells in response to the quesiton of why he eats with sinners, he puts the emphasis on God's initiative. God is the shepherd who goes looking for his lost sheep. God is the woman who lights a lamp, sweeps out the house, and searches everywhere for her lost coin until she has found it. God is the father who watches and waits for his children, runs out to meet them, embraces them, pleads with them, begs and urges them to come home.' (Return of the Prodigal Son -- Henri Nouwen p.106)

#187

Morning traffic on the Hudson...

'The farther I run away from the place where God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the Beloved, and the less I hear that voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and power games of the world.

It goes somewhat like this: I am not so sure anymore that I have a safe home, and I observe other people who seem to be better off than I. I wonder how I can get to where they are. I try hard to please, to achieve success, to be recognized. When I fail, I feel jealous or resentful of these others. When I succeed, I worry that others will be jealous or resentful of me. I become suspicious or defensive and increasingly afraid that I won't get what I so much desire or will lose what I already have. Caught in this tangle of needs and wants, I no longer know my own motivations. I feel victimized by my surroundings and distrustful of what others are doing or saying. Always on my guard, I lose my inner freedom and start dividing the world into those who are for me and those who are against me. I wonder if anyone really cares. I start looking for validations of my distrust. And wherever I go, I see them, and I say: 'No one can be trusted.' And then I wonder whether anyone ever really loved me. The world around me becomes dark. My heart grows heavy. My body is filled with sorrows. My life loses meaning. I have become a lost soul.... Real loneliness comes when we have lost all sense of having things in common.' (Return of the Prodigal Son -- Henri Nouwen)

#186

And can it be that I should gain an int'rest in the Savior's blood?

Died he for me, who casued his pain?

For me, who him to death pursued?

Amazing love

How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left his Father's throne above

(so free, so infinite his grace!)

humbled himself (so great his love!)

and bled for Adam's helpless race.

'Tis mercy all, immense and free;

for, O my God, it found out me.

Amazing love

How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

No condemnation now I dread;

Jesus, and all in him, is mine!

Alive in him, my living Head

and clothed in righteousness divine

bold I approach th'eternal throne

and claim the crown, thru Christ my own.

Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

-- Charles Wesley

#185

Burning with the light of Heaven...

'Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.' (James 4.8)

#184

Misty, mystical morning...

'For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.' (James 3.16-18)

#183

Clear night shot from yesterday - during a brief respite from thunder showers...

'Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.' (Col. 3.14-17)

#182

'If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.' (James 1.5-8)

#181

'Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.' (James 1.17-18)

#180

The rain passes just in time for sunset...

#179

Some sun getting through the rain and fog...

#178

Sky definitely changing with the season. I see a school of small fish followed by a group of whales, and a slightly ominous shadow of a shark swimming above them...

'It's impossible, that's sure, so let's start working...' - Philippe Petit

#177

Dark clouds gathering ominously over Manhattan...

#176

From sermon on Revelation 3.7.13

'I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.'

#175

Cruise ship coming in on a beautiful cloudless Sunday morning...

#174

'for indeed our God is a consuming fire.' (Heb. 12.29)

#173

Cool morning - the photo looks positively frigid like a winter's day, but it is actually in the upper 60's.



'By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.' (Heb. 11.3)

#172

Humidity lingers in patches of thick cloud


'I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.' (Hebrews 10.17)

#171

A quiet, end of summer rain with unmenacing clouds floating easily by

'For nothing will be impossible with God.' (Lk 1.37)

#170

'An hour hence and you will not care. A day hence and you will laugh at it. Don't you remember on earth - there were things too hot to touch with your finger but you could drink them all right? Shame is like that. If you will accept it - if you will drink the cup to the bottom - you will find it very nourishing: but try to do anything else with it and it scalds.' (CS Lewis - The Great Divorce)

#169

Picture perfect...

#168

From sermon on Revelation 3.1-6: We have the cosmic regenerative power of Christ in us, and yet we walk in deep darkness, harping on past splendor and reputation, wondering how gradually we might have compromised our loyalty to Christ in order to keep up with the Joneses.

#167

Beautiful sunset, beautiful day...

'The road to hell is the gradual one.' (C. S. Lewis - Screwtape Letters)

#166

Hudson River burning...

'And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.' (John 17.3-5)

When someone dies, when the shock of loss subsides, what is left is love and gratitude - and that, we can all share in celebration.

#165

Beautiful end to a rainy day...

#164

Life (and death) is so intimate; people do all sorts of things to make it not so in order to make it presumably consumable publicly.

#163

(Unusually tinted sky... the beginning of the end of summer...?)

An end - epitomized in death - always makes one feel that one did not appreciate enough, that one took the existence of the sharing and fellowship for granted - when the existence (of sharing) itself perhaps was the miracle; always wanting to improve or add to existence - to life - which keeps us going and moving, but when the life is taken away, or simply ends, we feel as if we'd somehow squandered the blessings that when we look back on seem like such great abundance of unimaginable generosity. To have no regrets then is to receive and appreciate as much as we can fully experience, giving thanks for, what we already have or can have while we have them. To fully experience - what more, or less, can we do. So that when life ends, we can celebrate the miracle that was and has now gone.

#162

'I want you to feel that what is said of Jesus is true of you. You have to hear that you are the beloved daughters and sons of God. To hear not [in your head] but [in your body]. To hear so that your whole life can be turned around. And listen to the Scriptures: 'I have loved you with everlasting love; I have written your name on the palm of My hand for all eternity; I have moulded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb. I love you. I embrace you. You are mine and I am yours; and you belong to Me.' You have to hear that. Because if you can hear that voice that speaks to you from all eternity, to all eternity, your life will become more and more the life of the Beloved. Because that is who you are.

'And then you start discovering that all that you do here [in the world] is nurtured from the knolwedge that you are the beloved. And that is who you are. Then you start believing in this. That circle of knowledge will become bigger and bigger and bigger until it cuts right into your daily life. You will still have rejection and you will still have praise and you will still have losses; but you will no longer live as a person who is searching for his or her identity but you live it as the beloved. You will live your pain and you will live your anguish and you will live your successes and you will live your failures as the one who knows who you are.' - Henri Nouwen