Category: bible

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #894 – A Rose of Sharon is a Rosasharn is a Rose of Sharyn!

DSC_6514©

Rose of Sharon is a common name, a biblical name, that has been applied to several different species of flowering plants that are valued in different parts of the world. The name’s colloquial application has been used as an example of the lack of precision of common names, which can potentially cause confusion. “Rose of Sharon” has also become a frequently used catch phrase in lyrics and verse.

  • In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Rose of Sharon (often called “Rosasharn”) is a major character, the eldest daughter of the Joad family and the sister of the protagonist Tom Joad. In nature the Rose of Sharon was found to survive the adverse conditions of the Dust Bowl just like Steinbeck’s character.
  • The Rose of Sharon is referenced in the Killswitch Engage song “Rose of Sharyn” from their 2004 album The End of Heartache.

Things are what they are!  monos en theos ††††† jas L

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #715– TURN TURN TURN

14-03-20newMex_4076 copy

To everything there is a season:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

enjoy thing promise that comes with spring! en theos monos †††jim

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #697 – ON THE RIGHT PATH!

14MHS TRACK_1853

I have been making  sports portraits around  West Texas for the past 20+ years. It has been a wonderful blessing. We have coaches at some of the schools that we made their sports portrait when they were in jr high.

But, I have to admit to becoming a little tired of making portraits of kids holding every kind of: football, basketball,baseball,volleyball, softball or golf ball. Yesterday the first young lady out for track photos came bounding up excitedly showing off her new tattoo.

It was refreshing to see a girl with Jeremiah 29:11 imprinted on her shoulder. I was quickly reminded that I sometimes wander off my path and plan. I become bored with the way I look at things. She refreshed my vision and allowed me to see something different than just another student holding a piece of sports paraphernalia.

She understood Who planned her path and helped put me back on mine.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 

en theos ††† jim

IMAGES OF SMALL – THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #654 – STILL AWAITING THIS NEW HEART THING!

13-08-29 bible heart_8573 copy

Ezekiel 36:26:

” I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”.

stay cool while you wait ††† en theos ††† jim

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #631- GIVE THANKS

13-11-10 kervile †††_9882

“You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day. It’s the one day that is given to you today…. It’s the only gift that you have right now. And the only appropriate response is gratefulness.”   Brother David Steindl-Rast

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me”… Matthew 25:35

HAPPY THANKSGIVING – ENJOY YOUR BLESSINGS †††en theos †††jim

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #623 – Red sky at night…”

13-11-10 kervile ††††_9928

 

He replied, “You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow, 3 red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.’ You are good at reading the weather signs in the sky, but you can’t read the obvious signs of the times!    Matthew 16:2-3

I had heard this expression all my life, “Red sky at night sailors delight, red sky at morn sailors take warn”. I also have read Matthew several times and my mind must surely have drifted as I did not know that this saying was that old and that it came from the lips of Jesus.

Pay attention to the sunrises & sunsets. More importantly pay attention to your reading & the signs of the times! ††† en theos ††† jimwork

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #619- FORGED BY FIRE?

13-10-12 hammer anvila_2009

 

As iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

So who are you allowing to shape you today? Be shaped and sharpened by those that forge you into yourself, not them!

Hone that blade! ††† en theos ††† jimwork

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #603 – HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

13-09-26 t o c lens babe flower_1620 copy

 

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blessed:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.” – Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

I heard my father say it. I heard my grandfather say it. Now I find myself saying it. What is going on in this world, how have things gotten so out of whack?

The same feelings must have been going around back in 1734 when Alexander Pope wrote An Essay on Man. What had Pope’s father and grandfathers said of the  world condition   back then? Or did Pope just listen to his Father.

“Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf”. Albert Schweitzer

Peaceout, go hug a tree or better yet the next person you see. We all could use one. ††† en theos †††jimwork

Untitled-1john10:10

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #586 – I was so elated, at last a place to find the answers to all the questions about being a real man.

a real man store

Ah, at last a place that might have the answers to the long embered questions I walk around with. Yes, it was on an off-placed road in a small New Mexico town, but I had this hope that I could wander in and find answers to all my wonder.

A real man! What is it, how to  become it and had I at last arrived? Would I be applauded when I entered or be asked “man what took you so long to get here”

Would I at least find the things that make “a real man”. Would in instantly I find the knowledge to do man things: fix cars, discern wisdom from knowledge, to truly find when to hold’em and when to fold em?

Alas, the store was closed and the answers still lie in wait. Man up, you can get The answer in only one place and the door is always open, “Seek and ye shall find.”Matthew 7:7

Knock and the door will be opened. ††† en theos ††† jimwork

IMAGES OF SMALL THINGS FROM THE BIGGEST COUNTY IN TEXAS #578- Why oh why do we always think the other grass is greener?

13-09-22 messilla_6269 13-09-22 messilla_6248 copy

Ah the magic of the blue road. Where else are you going to find a camel stretching to the max to reach the other side of the fence.  And then to be able to pull over and observe, record and learn. You just don’t get this stuff on the Interstates!

We always think that some destination, some thing, a certain time is going to be the catalyst to change, to something better. But once you get there, get that something, reach that date,  there are just as many flies a circling in the ointment.

In the words of my man Toby:

Where would I be, without you
I’d be packin’ my bags when I need to stay
I’d be chasin’ every breeze that blows my way
I’d be buildin’ my kingdom just to watch it fade
Away, it’s true
That’s me without you

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

enjoy who you are, where you are and live with Him for today. That’s all you really got. ††† en theos ††† jimwork