Camel diving

You really need to ask the bug, ala red baron, at the red days blog about "camel diving." She really is an expert.

Fall

Well, it has happened again. As the suburban garage door pulls open at 0600 this morning, it is clear that something has changed. The just off full moon greets me today with a cool breeze and moist touch of what can only be the first day of Fall. My calender does not wait for the solstice or some astronomical declaration. In Texas, the seasons are based upon the temperature. I can tell the summers when I walk bare foot in the morning by the thermal radiation that is still coming from the ground from the day before. The cats can tell also. They are frisky this morning and more insistent for their bowl to be filled. So, regardless of what the calender says, today is the first day of fall here in East Texas. I expect it will be a long Fall this year. It may last a long week before the ravages of winter come through.

The wet desert

The desert of New Mexico this year has exploded. Plants that would normally run and hide in a crevice or others that would attack without mercy with thorn and poison are now blooming in bright reds and yellows and blues and whites. (They still will attack without mercy) One multi branched cactus we saw that grows in groves and stands 4-6 feet tall was covered with red petaled flowers with yellow centers. Short legumes along the edges of disturbed ground with no defenses make ground hugging clouds of bright blue. The most dramatic sight we saw was along a bone dry creek bed. This lies as the low point on a plain of yellow dust that slowly slopes on both sides for three miles from the mountains with neither a rock or a rise. The only vegetation to be seen for 7-10 miles is a low grass that grows in clumps or a lonely stunted juniper. Along the stream bed at intervals of 15 feet, are growing single stalks of green that reach up about 5 feet. On each stalk is a brilliant set of five white petals each the size of your hand. These gently blow in the wind like some alien radio antenna. They only appear on the edges of the stream bed and faithfully follow the course as it winds gently towards the horizon.
The persistence and audacity of life in the creation is a wonder to behold and a sign post to us that God exists.

okf

ardicks adventures

ardicks adventures

ardicks adventures

Do you believe that God loves you? Do you really, in the depths of your soul, in your heart of hearts, in the quiet of the night, in your dying moment, in pain as in pleasure, beyond doubt, beyond despair, beyond all loss or gain… do you really know that God loves you? Can you cling to the root of Gods love when you have fallen over the cliff of hopelessness? When all the natural supports and allusions of self sufficiency are gone and all you have left are Gods promises and the memory of his nature, can you hold bare knuckled to the love of God?

Now read Hebrews 12:7-12 and look for the certainty that nothing at all matters in this world but your relationship with the creator. Remember Faithfull in the Pilgrims Progress and ask who was more blessed, Christian who survived to walk the narrow way to the river and cross in glory after many more episodes of struggle and glory or faithfull Faithfull who was taken to his father in persecution and torture. Nothing else matters: not life, not death, not comfort or security, not family, not beauty, not riches, not symetry, not ballance. You cannot Pretend that the rock hard and razor sharp divide between life and death is nonexistant. People were giving and being given in marriage the day before Noah was closed into the ark. Making long term plans and acting as if tommorrow will be just like today is effemeral.

ardicks adventures

ardicks adventures

Do you believe that God loves you? Do you really, in the depths of your soul, in your heart of hearts, in the quiet of the night, in your dying moment, in pain as in pleasure, beyond doubt, beyond despair, beyond all loss or gain… do you really know that God loves you? Can you cling to the root of Gods love when you have fallen over the cliff of hopelessness? When all the natural supports and allusions of self sufficiency are gone and all you have left are Gods promises and the memory of his nature, can you hold bare knuckled to the love of God?

Now read Hebrews 12:7-12 and look for the certainty that nothing at all matters in this world but your relationship with the creator. Remember Faithfull in the Pilgrims Progress and ask who was more blessed, Christian who survived to walk the narrow way to the river and cross in glory after many more episodes of struggle and glory or faithfull Faithfull who was taken to his father in persecution and torture. Nothing else matters: not life, not death, not comfort or security, not family, not beauty, not riches, not symetry, not ballance. You cannot Pretend that the rock hard and razor sharp divide between life and death is nonexistant. People were giving and being given in marriage the day before Noah was closed into the ark. Making long term plans and acting as if tommorrow will be just like today is effemeral.

Ardicks Adventures Continues

So what do you think?
"We cry down th elaw in respect of justification, but we set it up as a rule of sanctification. The law sends us to the gospel that we may be justified; and the gospel sends us to the law again to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified." "Yet we know that, for the substance of it (the law), it is the image of God, a beam of His holiness. The things therin commanded and forbidden are things morally, and therefore eternally, good and evil; nothing can alter the nature of them." The law is subservient to the Gospel. Its purpose is to convince and humble us, and the Gospel is to enable us to fulfill the obedience of the law." Theis was the great end of our redemption; He redeemed us from bondage and brought us into freedom, from slavery to service." Reference Luke 1:74 and Samuel Bolton.
ardick