Blessings from God

The Windmill and The Holy Spirit

/ Bill Jones / 8 Comments
Windmill Full View

Windmill Full View

The windmill was my choice for my 40th wedding anniversary present. Thanks to Sharon for agreeing it would be appropriate. In case you’re wondering, even though she will enjoy this too, she got something different for her present.

The windmill is 12 feet tall, and as you see, I had a bed already there like it was made for it. It spins wonderfully and the vane turns it into the wind just as it should. Our only regret is that when it’s spinning so wonderfully, it isn’t generating electricity or pumping water. That may be another project someday, but for now we will enjoy watching the wind’s effect upon it.

The windspinners we’ve installed, and the windmill’s actions often bring to mind Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit. Just as we can’t see the wind but can see it’s effect on the world around us, we can’t see the Holy Spirit, but we can see His effect on the hearts of the people around us. He is always moving and working, and we get to marvel when He turns hearts of stone into soft hearts of flesh. It’s especially marvelous when it’s our own heart that is changed!

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 ESV

New Every Morning- Spider, or Surprise, or Hurricane Lilies

/ Bill Jones / 6 Comments
Spider Lilies, or Surprise Lilies, or Hurricane Lilies

Spider Lilies, or Surprise Lilies, or Hurricane Lilies

Here’s one group of this year’s Spider Lilies. (Also known as Surprise Lilies or Hurricane Lilies).

You can see where the Spider comes from. I read some on the Surprise name – one thought is that they spring up just as a flower first, so you don’t see them coming, or they pop up in different places they weren’t in before. Hurricane denotes the time of year they bloom – and there’s even a tropical storm in the Gulf whose remnants are supposed to come through here in the next few days.

They are certainly ever faithful year after year – and new ones show up each year all over the beds and even in the yard. Reminded me once more of the wonderful passage from Lamentations. It makes it clear why we should hope and trust in the Lord.

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” Lamentations 3:21-24 ESV

Gas for Thirty Two Cents a Gallon – But, Jesus Paid it All

/ Bill Jones / Leave a comment
A fill up for less than $5

A fill up for less than $5

32 Cents a gallon!

32 Cents a gallon!

These aren’t nostalgia examples, they’re from earlier this afternoon. I really did fill up my truck for less than 5 dollars. Been a long time since I did that (actually, I don’t think I had a truck when gas was that cheap.)

It was possible because I buy groceries at a particular store that has a Bonus Card program. (I’ll give them a quick plug – it’s Bi-Lo). The more groceries you buy, the more cents per gallon you get off at a local convenience store. I let the “cents off” add up more than usual and with the price of gas going down (at least here it has), I was in danger of having more credit per gallon than the gas cost, so I decided it was time to fill up. (Although exceeding the cost could have been interesting – buying it “for nothing”.)

I realize somewhere along the way, either me or someone else paid for the “cents off” I received today. I’m a firm believer in the “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” adage. If there’s a cost, someone will pay full price, sometime, somehow.

That’s where the song, Jesus Paid it All, comes to mind. We had a debt from our sins that required payment, and that payment was (spiritual) death. There were no Bonus Cards that could reduce the price enough that we could pay the remainder. It was all or nothing.

So, “Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain – He washed it white as snow” (Elvina M. Hall 1865)

Spider Web – Beautiful But Temporary

/ Bill Jones / 8 Comments
Spider Web From Below

Spider Web From Below

Spider Web From Above

Spider Web From Above

I saw this one in the garden today and had to post it. It’s one of the big garden spiders (don’t know the real name.)

The intricacy of the web is beautiful, and amazing that God taught the spider to spin it. But, like all things on earth, it is temporary. With all the cats and birds, wind, etc. around here, this one won’t be there for long.

“Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish. His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider’s web.”  Job 8:13-14 ESV

But, God’s trust is everlasting! Hope in that.