Clean Slate

  5X5 Bible Reading Plan for 2017     This plan should take 5-10 minutes of reading. It is broken into 5 readings per week so you can fit it into your schedule. The two days off allow you time to catch up if you miss any days. However, if you miss a day, two or more or even a week please do not stop. Just start back in the appropriate week and go from there. You can go back as time allows  but the main focus is to develop a habit of getting into God's word on a regular basis. If you are a believer then you have probably been told hundreds of times about the importance of regular/daily intake of the Bible. Perhaps you have just never known where to start or have started and stopped many times, as I had in the past. If you are not a believer, I encourage you to read this book. It is a book that allows anyone to better understand the literary classics of the Western world. It is the touchstone of the history of the world for the past 2,000 years.    ...

From D.A. Carson: On that wretched day the soldiers mocked him, Raucous laughter in a barracks room, “Hail the King!” they sneered, while spitting on him, Brutal beatings on this day of gloom. Though his crown was thorn, he was born a King - Holy brilliance bathed in bleeding loss- All the soldiers blind to this stunning theme: Jesus reigning from a cursed cross. Awful weakness mars the battered God-man, Far too broken to hoist the beam, Soldiers strip him bare and pound the nails in, watch him hanging on the cruel tree. God's own temple's down! He has been destroyed! Death's remains are laid in rock and sod. But the temple rises in God's wise ploy: Our great temple is the son of God. “Here's the One who says he cares for others, One who says he came to save the lost. How can we believe that he saves others' When he can't get of that bloody cross. Let him save himself! Let him come down now!”- Savage jeering at the king's disgrace. But by hanging there...

I  lift up my eyes to  the hills.      From where does my help come? My help comes from the  Lord ,      who  made heaven and earth.   He will not  let your foot be moved;      he who  keeps you will not slumber.   Behold, he who keeps Israel      will neither slumber nor sleep.   The  Lord  is your keeper;      the  Lord  is your  shade on your  right hand.   The sun shall not  strike you by day,      nor the moon by night. The  Lord  will  keep you from all evil;      he will  keep your life.   The  Lord  will keep      your  going out and your coming in      from this time forth and forevermore Psalm 121

This post might be better titled wildflowers, Mongolian skies and animals. My father-in-law grew up in the Burghangai countryside when Mongolia was a majority nomadic nation. Families moved two or more times a year for grazing their animals. Mongolia experiences harsh winters so a more substantial place was needed to make it through winter time with your family and herds alive. My father-in-law, Chagnaa Luvsandorj, wanted to visit his Father and Grandfather's winter quarters. It has no address. There are no road signs in the countryside. He knew where it was based on the hills, rock outcroppings and water sources.  I got lucky and saw this fellow on our way back and he was taking it easy as he searched for lunch. Just as in South Carolina or California, beauty was everywhere if you took your time and opened your eyes. I love the shadow on the plain from the cloud above.  Below is the winter quarters, it is still being us...