He seemed to enjoy posing for the camera.
Stick Insect Photoshoot
Gladioli beauty
A Teacup of Dahlias
Beautiful Dahlias, Magnificent God!
Yarra River, Victoria, Australia
The Yarra River, Victoria, Australia, flows from its Source in the Yarra Ranges, Great Dividing Range, to Port Phillip Bay, a distance of 242 kilometres (150 miles).
The lower stretches of the river are where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches. Ref. Wikipedia
The final section of the Yarra River passes through the Port of Melbourne and under the Bolte and West Gate Bridges.
Encouragement in prayer. A Prayer Podcast based on Dr. Dick Eastman’s book “No Easy Road”.
22/12/2020
Passionfruit
Apparently there are quite a few new varieties of passionfruit in Australia, see here and here.
Perhaps growing this passionfruit vine is another lesson in perseverance.
To never give up.
The Apostle Paul shares encouragement to Believers to keep trusting God, and never give up. Not only will God supply our needs but we will be changed as our faith is strengthened.
Noisy Minors… very cross about something!
The “Cohort” lined up to protest! Our 30 foot pencil pines are a favourite hiding place for possums… is that the focus of the minors’ commotion? But the Culprit stayed hidden and wasn’t exposed or flushed out by the “Cohort”, that we could see.
We can make a lot of “noise” about the troubles of life sometimes, but the Bible has a beautiful word of wisdom for us:
Balancing Act
Three’s Company – Sunset at Lillydale Lake
Following floods in September 1984, construction of the lake was proposed to prevent future flooding and provide recreational facilities.
Construction began in 1988 and was completed in June 1990. It was officially opened to the public on 7 July 1990.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillydale_Lake
A few early roses…
To bee or not to bee
…a play on words perhaps, yet an interesting look at life and death…
“To be, or not to be, that is the question”. By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, from Hamlet.
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
Ref: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56965/speech-to-be-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question
Compare the Authority of the words of JESUS CHRIST to the Jews approximately 2000 years ago:
“So Jesus answered them, “I am telling you the truth: the Son can do nothing on his own; he does only what he sees his Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. He will show him even greater things to do than this, and you will all be amazed.
Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the Son gives life to those he wants to. Nor does the Father himself judge anyone. He has given his Son the full right to judge, so that all will honour the Son in the same way as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.
“I am telling you the truth: those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life.
I am telling you the truth: the time is coming — the time has already come — when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will come to life. Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life. And he has given the Son the right to judge, because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be surprised at this; the time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice and come out of their graves: those who have done good will rise and live, and those who have done evil will rise and be condemned.
“I can do nothing on my own authority; I judge only as God tells me, so my judgement is right, because I am not trying to do what I want, but only what he who sent me wants. “If I testify on my own behalf, what I say is not to be accepted as real proof.
You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very Scriptures speak about me!”
John 5:19-31, 39 GNB
https://www.bible.com/296/jhn.5.19-31,39.gn
“Then said Jesus unto them again (emphasis mine), Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
https://www.bible.com/1/jhn.10.7-11.kjv
“The Flight of the Bumblebee”
https://gardeningandfaith.wordpress.com/2019/07/06/the-flight-of-the-bumblebee/
Beauty outside our front door!
3/11/2020
