I Could Never Be as Good as You, Lord

                             gazebo downtown Potsdam, NY
    
In heaven there will be peace and rest from our labors.  God has a place waiting for each of us.
His grace gives us more that any of us could ever earn.

I get impatient, angry, frustrated 

   and so on with others

You never do

Your patience Your love, 

   Your tolerance are positively amazing

It reminds me that You are God who is perfect 

   and I am only an imperfect creature

I profess to be Your child

But I make so many mistakes
I sin so often

I try to apologize

But it must be monotonous to You

To see my sins and hear my apologies so many times

I never hear Your frustration,

I never feel Your anger,

I never sense that you are impatient with me

You are so amazing

I am so blessed to be Your child

I need so much help from you, so much patience,
so much tolerance and forgiveness

I am so imperfect, a real work in progress

How wonderful You are that You love me so much

   that you died on the cross
   to redeem me from my sins

I can’t wait to see You in person
   when I get to go to heaven

Praise You that You paved the way
   for me to get there

Thank You so much, Lord
   for Your immeasurable love and grace

Blessed be Your Most Holy Name.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

        At boat launch on Canton-Ogdensburg Road  Canton, NY
    The water was like glass.  Notice the clouds and trees reflected on the water.

            

         Bend in the river on Canton-Potsdam Road  Canton, NY

                Same location.  Notice all the geese in the water.
Despite the sin, the chaos, the wrongs perpetrated every day by man against man, God loves us and reaches out to us.  He coaxes us.  He says "Come to Me, My love for you is limitless."

I Was Wrong, Lord

Please forgive me

I could say it wasn’t a “big” sin

But compared to You and Your perfection,
   it was HUGE

Please forgive me, Loving Father

I’m trying to follow You, to copy You, to model You

But I fall so short

I cannot do all this without You

   without Your love, Your mercy, Your grace      
   and Your forgiveness

With You I can accomplish mighty things

Without You, Lord, I am lost

Please help me, a sinner.

"Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me." Exodus 10:17

Notice the collapsing shed that is overrun by vines. That could be our lives unless we are on guard, watching out for Satan.  His voice sounds enticing. His ways easily lead us on the wide path to destruction.  Choose your path carefully, my friend.  Eternity is for keeps.

           Deserted house on rural road near Morley, NY

                Swamp on Back Hannawa Road  Potsdam, NY

                        Heritage Park downtown Canton, NY

The Golden Days

Nature has taken on a golden caste
   as if her photographer used a golden filter
   on all his photographs

                        Canton-Ogdensburg Road   Canton, NY

Trees are starting to be tinged gold
   with red highlights
   and are peppering the lawns with leafy fallout.

                  Heritage Park  downtown, Canton, NY

Green grass is rapidly fading to pale green
   with golden brown tints

                             Heritage Park

Fields are turning shades of brown and red
   with some vivid greens steadfastly soldiering on

                   Field in rural near Morley, NY

The fogs are rolling in both days and nights
   as air and ground temperatures
   no longer remain constant

                 My back lawn near Potsdam, NY

I often hear the honk of Canadian geese
   as they fly to their winter homes

We have had a bird convention some days
   with dozens of birds perched on trees
   and telephone wires. 
   Is the result cacophony or just plain squawking?
  
Are they discussing their plans for winter?
I wish I spoke “bird”. 
It would be fun to eavesdrop and learn.

The caterpillars inch along
  also seeking a resting place
  for their long winter’s nap.

I see many deer on the side of the road.
Fortunately for all of us,
   they have stayed away from my car.

The air is cooler. 
This weeks “warm” days
   would have been considered “cool” days
   just a month ago.

I enjoy the color changes
   but dread the inevitable coming of winter.

I tell myself to stop complaining and enjoy today.
 

There is no guarantee of how many “todays”
   remain in my life.

                      Brook near West Potsdam, NY

So for now I will enjoy the beautiful golden days
   and the soon to come brilliant orange and red days.

I will let the next day worry about itself.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:34

Knapps Station Community Church

This is my church.  I have been fed spiritually here as I never had before.

(Check out the website for directions and lots of other great information.)

Knapps Station Church is a great place to feed your soul with the "good stuff" from the Bible.

My church is always providing new bible studies. We have begun one on what it really means to be a Christian.
The class takes place every Sunday at 6:30 pm and runs 4 more weeks. It's not too late to start and find out what the word "disciple" really means.


Christian, It's Not What You Think

Knapps Station Community Church has many surprises in store for those who seek.

Some creative soul put this in one of the sidewalk blocks.  Can you find it?

         Tree on Potsdam-Madrid Road  Potsdam, NY

I would also like to suggest that you check out the blog page for my friend, Jean Oathout.  I have received much good information and many blessings from her blog:

Treasures in Christ

Resurrection Power  is a current post that is very inspiring.

Book Review

The Jesus I Never Knew

Phillip Yancey takes a serious look at the Jesus he found in the Gospels.  He explores Jesus as the passionate, dynamic, emotional and incredibly loving Son of God that we will find when we carefully read the Gospels and truly look at the One whose life inspired "the greatest story ever told!"  This book is one to be read slowly and savored in order to pick up the insights Philip Yancey learned from many decades of study.  I heartily recommend it. 

Audacious by Beth Moore

Do you have an "audacious" love of God?  Beth Moore, who is a dynamic teacher of Christian classes, takes on the challenge to lead women and everyone to learn to boldly love God who "audaciously" loves us and is longing for us to "audaciously" love Him in return.

Commentary
A friend gave me a Gospel Parallels.  In it, you read the same New Testament stories from Matthew, Mark and Luke - at the same time.  The Gospels are not all identical.  Each has a lightly different slant. Matthew wrote to the Jews, Mark wrote to the Christians in Rome and Luke wrote to the Gentiles (all those not Jewish).  I've read all these stories before but reading them together like this has helped me to gain greater insight into what Jesus meant when He spoke the words.  I am enjoying this.

Blessing

May you be blessed by knowing
   that the Great I Am
   who is Creator of Heaven and Earth 
   is YOUR Loving Father.
   His grace and forgiveness
   for whatever you've done or should have done
   is anxiously, audaciously waiting for you
   to come to Him, to acknowledge Him
   and to ask for
   and experience His complete forgiveness.
And may you be blessed by the absolute JOY
   that only His love can bring.

                    Bridge downtown Potsdam, NY

Blessings for you,my friend for a wonderful week. 

All photos taken by Debbie and Tim McEwen - 

  used with permission

All bible reference from the NIV unless otherwise noted

If you are interested, you can click on the Blog Archive 

  dates on the top right side of this post to connect 

  to previous blog posts

I would love to hear from you either on the comment 

  section of this blog post or through my email  

  debbieamcewen@gmail.com

I post every other Saturday 

The next post will be 10-22-2016

                A cute birdhouse on a stump near Higley  Colton, NY