“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, KJV). I was only gone for one week. I left happy flowers in clean pots, well-watered and weeded. I came back to blooming flowers in containers filled with weeds. Weeds of every dimension and type. Where did they come from? Flower overrun with weeds I never have to search for weeds. I pull them up, and the next day two more appear. It seem

hen we are still, quiet, we remember that He IS God, and we are not. That seems like a simple concept, but in reality, in everyday practice, we forget. We worry like we are in charge. We act like we are in charge. We talk like we are in control. But we aren’t.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ changed the course of history and made forgiveness of sin possible.

Pain. Excruciating pain! That is what I felt when the heavy metal door closed on my finger. That finger hurt for weeks. I protected it and nursed it, and it seemed to be healing. I no longer wore a bandage because it did not bleed at the slightest touch. I could go for hours without any thought of the unfortunate incident….unless I happened to bump it. Then immediately, the pain would flare like no healing had occurred. The finger looked better, but it was not well.

We keep a compost pile where we dump our food scraps each day. We mix in leaves from the yard and a little dirt, stir it around periodically, ensure that it stays damp, usually from the rain, and wait for nature to run its course. The result is rich soil that we can use in flower pots and flower beds. Along the way, opossums and raccoons get some nighttime snacks, a few potatoes grow from the scraps, and other interesting things happen. Overall, the compost pile is a great ad