And I Am One of Them

This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I
view it from this fair garden, under the shadow
of these vines. But if I climbed some great
mountain and looked out over the wide lands,
you know very well what I would see--brigands on
the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the
amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding
crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness.

It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly
bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a
quiet and holy people. They have discovered a
joy which is a thousand times better than any
pleasures of this sinful life. They are
despised and persecuted, but they care not. They
have overcome the world. These people, Donatus,
are the Christians--and I am one of them.
... St. Cyprian (?-258), a letter in A Treasury of Sermon
Illustrations, Charles Langworthy Wallis, ed.,
Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1950, p. 59

photo taken near Oceanside, Oregon

Oregon photography

Here is the Patience of the Saints: a prophetic word

The lives of mankind ebb and flow across history,
but these are hours, yes, an hour is upon you,
when things destined for My Son override
the histories of individual lives.

Always I know and care for your individual
circumstances and your lives as individuals,
but do not lose sight of the fact that you,
as one individual, are but a small part of
the corporate Body. All is coming to an eternally
destined moment for Christ and His bridal inheritance,
to whom and for whom all earth's history culminates.

Look about you. Think you that all this is created
for your small life alone? No, it is part of a
great mystery--I have purposed it for My Son and
all those TOGETHER that shall be His inheritance.

Always I am with you and for you but there are times,
of such now is, that the designs of a larger picture,
My eternal purpose, take precedent over the individual
events of what you see as your specific destiny.

If you know and understand this you will be able
to abandon yourself to My purpose more fully, and
more happily. You are like a drop of water in a small
tributary finally reaching the water of a large
river, which in turn finally reaches the ocean.
Does the drop of water that you are diminish
as it loses itself in a larger body?--not from
My perspective, but there is a certain abandonment
needed so that it is FELT from your perspective.
You are flowing toward a great ocean that is an
eternal sea of life in Christ. Be unto Me and
for Me.

You are IN Christ so know you are safe but it is
not about you but about things greater than
you know. Let your perspective be changed and
the view you have of what life is and where your
life stands in it all.

Your life is surely hid with Christ in God.
The pages of human history are surely moving
toward the ordered destiny I have willed: he that is
prudent let him hear. As Peter was bound and
taken to where he did not choose for himself
to go, so your individual lives are bound
up in My will and eternal purpose. This
does not diminish your life but you need to
abandon yourself to Me entirely to feel
the same joy that Jesus did when He abandoned
all to Me. "In the volume of the book it
is written: I have come to do Thy will, O God.
He taketh away the first that He might establish
the second."

Be about my business. Be unto Me and for
Me. He who loses his life shall surely
gain it. "If any man have an ear,
let him hear, he that leads people into
captivity shall go into captivity, he that
kills by the sword must be killed by the
sword. Here is the patience and the
faith of the saints (Rev. 13: 9 & 10).

Here is the patience of the saints: here
are they that keep the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus. (Rev 14:12).

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still,
and he which is filthy let him be filthy
still, and that is righteous, let him be
righteous still, and that is HOLY, let him
be Holy still. And behold, I come quickly
and my reward is with me to give every
man according as his work shall be
(Rev 22: 11 & 12).

If you have ears, listen and obey.

Romans 12: 1-5
1 For this reason I make request to you, brothers,
by the mercies of God, that you will give your bodies
as a living offering, holy, pleasing to God, which is
the worship it is right for you to give him. 2 And let
not your behaviour be like that of this world, but be
changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you
may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete
purpose of God.

3 But I say to every one of you, through the grace given
to me, not to have an over-high opinion of himself, but
to have wise thoughts, as God has given to every one a
measure of faith. 4 For, as we have a number of parts in
one body, but all the parts have not the same use, 5 So
we, though we are a number of persons, are one body in
Christ, and are dependent on one another.

photo taken in Feeding Hills, MA

The Wonder that is God

Hearts that are "fit to break" with love
for the Godhead are those who have been
in the Presence and have looked with
opened eye upon the majesty of Deity. Men
of the breaking hearts had a quality about
them not known to or understood by common men.

They habitually spoke with spiritual authority.
They had been in the Presence of God and they
reported what they saw there. They were prophets,
not scribes: for the scribe tells us what he has
read, and the prophet tells us what he has
seen.

The distinction is not an imaginary one. Between the scribe
who has read and the prophet who has seen, there is a
difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with
orthodox scribes; but the prophets, where are they? The
hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but
the Church waits for the tender voice of the saint who
has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye
upon the Wonder that is God.

... A. W. Tozer, Pursuit of God

photo taken in Neahkahnie Beach, Oregon

Neahkahnie Beach, Oregon
Oregon photography
A.W.Tozer

When we are spiritually free, we do not have
to worry about what to say or do in unexpected,
difficult circumstances. When we are not
concerned about what others think of us or what
we will get for what we do, the right words and
actions will emerge from the centre of our beings
because the Spirit of God, who makes us children of
God and sets us free, will speak and act through us.

- Henri J. M. Nouwen


the photo was taken at Rockaway Beach, Oregon.
It is white floating kite on a cloudy day. This is
the light we couldnt see with our naked eyes!

"Rockaway Beach, Oregon
Oregon photography
Henri Nouwen

Whate'er may change, in Him no change is seen,
A glorious Sun, that wanes not, nor declines;
Above the clouds and storms He walks serene,
And on His people's inward darkness shines;
All may depart--I fret not nor repine,
While I my Saviour's am, while He is mine.

While here, alas! I know but half His love,
But half discern Him, and but half adore;
But when I meet Him in the realms above,
I hope to love him better, praise Him more,
And feel, and tell, amid the choir divine,
How fully I am His, and He is mine.

-- J. Quarles (1624-1665)& Henry Lyte(1793-1847)

photo taken at Rockaway Beach, Oregon

"Rockaway Beach, Oregon
Oregon photography
dog photographs

Fuji Flies His Kite

I met this little dog, Fuji, on the beach
in Rockaway Beach, Oregon. He was a rescue
dog, very much loved. His family was flying
kites, and if you look very closely you
will see that his blue leash is attached to
a kite, also. His joy was great in being
who he was that day, and the wind, carried
his Spongebob Squarepants kite to great
heights. My joy was great in watching him!


(p.s. the dog was absolutely safe in flying
the kite!)

photo taken at Rockaway Beach, Oregon

"Rockaway Beach, Oregon
Oregon photography
funny dog photographs