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Full Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse This Collage was created in Adobe CC Lightroom's Print Module. Enjoy and be blessed!

How to Equip Yourself: Paul Gives Us Tools Paul provides tools for us to live in the way God intends for us to live. He informs us we are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8, 9) and created to do good works (2:10). Then he equips us for these good works with divine tools, explaining how we have been delivered from darkness and transformed into new persons (2:14–16) and a new building (2:19–22). Paul labored hard to unleash the church and prepare its members for service. If we pursue the same goal, we must embrace the following assumptions:  - Everyone wants to feel worthwhile.  - Everyone needs and responds to encouragement.  - Most people don’t know how to be successful.  - People are naturally motivated.  - Most people will move once they receive permission and equipping. Equip Yourself with these tools and goals that Paul has given us to live by. Be blessed and be a blessing!

How to Study the Bible and ...why reading isn't enough. Get serious about it! Grab a notebook and highlighters. Don’t be afraid to write in your Bible, either Grab tools that can help you understand what you are reading, such as concordances, Bible dictionaries, Hebrew-Greek keyword study Bibles, parallel Bibles, etc. (You can actually find many resources for these tools for FREE online at sites like biblehub and biblegateway.) Don’t just read a verse and walk away! Ask questions about the background for that verse. Read the surrounding context (verses before and after). Find out the audience that particular book was written to so that you can understand the purpose of the words on the page. Learn how to do verse-mapping (one of my favorite Bible Study methods!) and other methods of bible study until you find one or two that work best for you. Here’s why I like Verse Mapping – it makes God’s Word more personal and helps you connect wit...

Created 2 Create From Dreaming to Doing “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  2 Corinthians   10:5   NIV This verse has been interpreted in negative terms. Take sinful thoughts captive and keep them out of your mind. But that's only half the battle. But if we focus on the negative implications while ignoring the positive possibilities, it becomes a half-truth. It’s also about capturing creative thoughts and keeping them in our minds. Creating to Create is about stewarding every idea inspired by the Holy Spirit. Every dream is created twice. The first creation is mental. Every invention, every business, every building, every painting is conceived in the right-brain imagination first. It’s nothing more than a single-cell idea at that point. The second creation is physical. You make it obedient to Christ via blood, sweat, and te...

Dream Big Expectant Dreams Along this journey of seeking what it looks like to love God with my entire mind, this is one lesson I need continuously drilled into my hard head. Stop thinking so small! Stop talking yourself out of believing that God can accomplish the miraculous using your life. Take back the promises and methods of God you have rejected because you thought they couldn’t possibly be meant for you. Take them back by letting go! God does not call us to small thinking. Small thinking results from a lack of exposure to the Word and a lack of ownership of the Word. Today, let the Word of God speak possibility and limitlessness over you. Maybe you have never given God the opportunity to dream with your life. Maybe you are afraid to take that next step for fear you will be disappointed. Maybe you feel insignificant, convinced small is just your size. Leave it behind. Small thinking limits who we become and what we are able to accomplish in the Lord. T...

Setting Goals in Faith Every time you set a goal, that is a statement of faith. So you can see how goals stretch your faith. They affirm that you trust God, but they are also statements of how much you trust God. In Matthew 9:29, the Bible says, “According to your faith let it be done to you.” So, in what area have you neglected to set a goal? In what area of your life do you fear to set a goal?

"Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful things in Your Law" Psalm 119:18 The blessing of “ordinary life” is that God grants us a constant succession of opportunities to know His grace and His presence rather than waiting for one perfect moment to dramatically demonstrate our love for Him. God’s army looks like God’s people. David already walked in obedience and was able to be obedient in facing Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Many of us picture ourselves in the future as a super saint full of radical faith, but obedience must happen in the real world right now. It doesn’t happen when we’re in a big group making noise together for God’s name and it doesn’t count in your head. Obedience requires that you step out into “the real,” in the present context in which you find yourself and choose: Trust God or melt into the crowd who talks about trusting God. You are more than ordinary... Be Blessed and be a Blessing!

A Few of My Favs What I like about these images is that they pushed me to explore more of the creative tools in Photoshop. I began to understand and use layer masks plus many of the filters in the program. I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of what this program can do and looking forward to push myself even further in 2018. Night Photography is another challenge area where I’m working on to improve my skills. I love taking pictures, especially pictures of birds and yes, people too!! The pictures in the collage were taken at Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, the Melbourne Beach Pier, the Viera Wetlands, Cocoa Beach, New York skyline, Quebec City skyline, Space Coast Fair, Downtown Jacksonville, Jacksonville Zoo, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C. God blesses us with many things in life and we each have different gifts and talents. We must decide how we're going to use them. Everyone of us has something to offer the world around us. What brings you joy? Wh...

Welcome 2018...2017 in now part of our past and time for reflection. In 2017 I posted 81 new blog posts, down from 170 in 2016. So, my goal 2018 is to write 200 new posts – that’s an average of 16-17 posts each month. So, let the blogging begin with a reflection on 2017. Some of my posts included a series on the Book of Ephesians – “A Call to Carry on.” No More Walls was a popular post in this series. Inside My Eye was also a popular post, I wrote about my surgery to correct a Macular Hole in my right eye. Well, the journey continues with another surgery in a few days to once again repair the hole. I don’t mind the surgery as much as I mind the recovery. “ Joy ” was another popular post in 2017. For the last few years I have participated in the #write31days challenge to post each day in October. My theme for the series was “ Created to Create .” Follow the link here to read the daily posts featuring some of my favorite PhotoShop CC techniques and photos...