The Red Queen Affair

Today I am packing up for a few days at Whitehall Church Camp in lovely Emlenton PA where I have a great little purple cottage. I have looked forward to this tradition for many years- my hubby has been going here every summer for his whole life and Jn was a part of this for most of hers. This year I will not have my normal throng of kids around as they are all off being collegebound, work-a-holics and well Jn is globetrotting again. I am going up so that my Granddaughter can attend for a couple days and enjoy this experience. Last year I didnt go at all as I was not yet ready to face the realizations that it will not be the same and now as I pack to go I am struck with one more goodbye to the past. I am not good with these and now I am finding it difficult to motivate toward that end. Sometimes it is not the putting on the armor that is important but rather the dross burning to remove impurities that counts and right now I am guessing that this is what the Lord is doing for me. Removing yet one more layer of the me that I am holding on to that that hides the Him that wants to shine out. I will be back this weekend sometime and so with that I will leave you with a great picture from Idaho and a great thought to ponder. Be blessed!

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN YOUR CLOUDS?

Behold, He cometh with clouds.

Revelation 1:7
http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=re+1:7&sr=1

In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those
sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal
lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God. It is by those very
clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If
there were no clouds, we should have no faith. "The clouds are but
the dust of our Father's feet." The clouds are a sign that He is
there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow and bereavement
and suffering are the clouds that come along with God! God cannot
come near without clouds, He does not come in clear shining.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our
trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn
something. His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until
our relationship to Him is exactly that of a child - God and my own
soul, other people are shadows. Until other people become shadows,
clouds and darkness will be mine every now and again. Is the
relationship between myself and God getting simpler than ever it has
been?

There is a connection between the strange providences of God and what
we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of
life in the light of our knowledge of God. Unless we can look the
darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging God's
character, we do not yet know Him.

"They feared as they entered the cloud . . ." - Is there anyone "save
Jesus only" in your cloud? If so, it will get darker; you must get to
the place where there is "no one any more save Jesus only."