Behold the Lilies of the Field

We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Spring.  

Phlox

Bradford Pear

Japonica

Wild Plum

Dandelion

Fruitless Plum Buds

Buttercup and Bee

Pine

Forsynthia

These early blooms remind me of God’s provisional care for us.

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:

they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, 

even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  

But if God so clothes the grass of the field,

which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,

will he not much more clothe you, 

O you of little faith? (Matthew 6:28-30, ESV)

How does God speak to you through His creation?  Leave a comment.

All photographs were taken by Robert Lee Foster.

Are You Lost? Here’s Your SIGN!

Last week, I wrote a post about a basic approach to interpreting parables, SIGN.

• S tory
• I nformation
• G oal
• N ow What?

In this post, I want to model this approach on a specific parable.

Shepherds near Bethlehem Photo taken by Robert Lee Foster.

Here’s Your Sign! Part One of a Series on Parables

The parables of Jesus are often people’s favorite passages of scripture.  The problem I often see is people fail to understand parables.  

They fall too quickly in love with the story.  They start talking about what the parable means to them forgetting that the parable has to make sense in the Gospel story first.  They miss out on the true meaning and make bad interpretations.  

image from http://www.imageafter.com

I want try to try and give some direction on correctly interpreting the parables.  So, here’s your sign!

We Do Windows!

We have clean windows at our house and we are happy about it!

We love the fact that we have many large windows in our house.  The only problem is we have a lot of windows to keep clean.  The windows and storm windows are old, hard to open and close, and difficult to clean, as a result we do not clean them very often.

Photo by Robert Lee Foster

Is There a Dutch Oven in Your Family?

I wrote a few of weeks ago about cooking fruit cobblers in dutch ovens.  Dutch ovens have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  Both sides of my family homesteaded in Kansas after the Civil War.  My paternal grandmother’s family moved from West  Virgina to Chatauqua County, Kansas crossing the mighty Mississippi river at St.Louis around 1869. While there, they bought additional provisions for the remainder of the trip. One item of the items that they purchased that day was a dutch oven.

Photo by Robert Lee Foster

Top 10 Reasons I Wear a Beard

1.  Beards are Manly.

The simple fact is “men have beards.”  When a boy is growing up, he longs to have whiskers.  He wants to shave like his dad.  When you final have whiskers to shave, you wonder if you could grow a beard.  You have to try.  Too many men give up on their beard before it ever really has a chance to grow and fill in.

2.  Wearing a Beard Saves Money.

Wearing a beard is also economical.  Think of all the money spent on shaving cream, razors, and after shave.  All of that cash could be going toward something worth while. 

Oatmeal Is Good and Good for You!

Long before I had ever heard of hobbits, I knew about Second Breakfast.  I learned about it from my Grandpa.  We would get up early in the morning to feed cattle.  He would fix us a quick bowl of oatmeal before we headed out, usually with milk, butter, and sorghum.  Returning home, Grandpa would tell me that if we kept quiet about the oatmeal, Grandma would probably make us some bacon, eggs, and the fixin’s.  He was right she would!

A steaming bowl of Apple Pie Oatmeal. Photo taken by Robert Lee Foster.

Second breakfast was good.

The Weirdest Teacher that I Ever Had!

Who is the weirdest teacher that I ever had?  

Easy.

Pat “Weird” Ward.  

He was also one of the best teachers I have ever had!  He was weird by definition, and the definition of weird.  His students adored him and remember what he taught.

He could get us to do just about anything with his wacky approach to teaching.  He was a master of memorization and had you memorizing things before you understood the concepts and even before you realized you were learning.  One day in class, you’d see something written on the board or Ward would be repeating some phrase that sounded like gibberish.  Then the next day, he would teach you what you already knew!

Spiritual Growth Poll

To follow up on yesterday’s post on Bible Reading, I thought I would try the following poll:

 

 

An Essay on the importance of Reading the Biblical Text:  Biblical Literacy Begins with Reading.

I Read the Entire Bible in a Year! (Well, Almost…)

Last year, I made it a goal to read through the Bible in a year.  I started well and began with due diligence, taking several steps to make a successful attempt.

• I asked a couple of friends to hold me accountable.
• I made a plan to read a little each day (other plans).
• I kept accurate records.

Photo taken by Robert Lee Foster.

And all of these plans went very well until school was out in May.  During the Summer, I abandoned  my plans and did not check in with my partners.  While I did consistently read my Bible all Summer, I wasn’t staying with my plan and would often miss several days in a row.  I tried