I recently read an article by Steve Shultz in Elijah Rain entitled "Immanuel-'God with Us.' " He pointed out that "Immanuel" can also mean "God in us." He also refers to John 14:18-20, part of which says "...On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you." Steve writes "We are coming to a day and an hour this year, when God is more emphatically revealing that He is in us! Yes, we knew that before, but a greater revelation of this truth is now coming..." The next day I was beginning to read in Matthew, as I read at least a chapter a day in the new and a chapter in the old, just as a way to kick off my quiet times. This chapter mentions a quote from Isaiah which the angel repeats to Mary as a prophetic reference to Mary and Jesus and refers to Jesus as Immanuel. Then I turned to my previously marked place in the old testament and I am reading Isaiah 7, which contains the verse about Immanuel quoted in Matthew 1.



That was really exciting to me because it was like a confirmation of what I had read in Steve's article. I so need a greater revelation of this truth in my life! It stirred up my longing and renewed my hope for this. How wonderful to remember that, no matter the circumstances, God is with us; God is in us. I want God to grow in me to the point that He comes out in my words and actions and fills every moment; every thought.

I'm going to vote tomorrow. Does anyone else have a hard time interpreting those amendments? The Christian Coalition used to send out info on each candidate about their stance on key issues. They explained in plain language what any amendment meant; it was a big help to me. Jose' found that they don't do it anymore because a judge in AL ruled against allowing them to do it. I don't know which judge.

rick and beckie, thanks for your comments and input. It's always good to hear from you. I was excited to hear about your car. Hope to see you soon.

KDR

WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING....

The last 5 weeks I've been spending my time working on Rainbow Landing. What a wonderful opportunity this was for me to grow as a contractor. This experience has been great.Basically the work that we were doing is simple. Replace all the hand rails and decking boards with new wood. A part of the job description detailed exactly what we were to use.....even the name brand of wood. Simple. You can tell from the above photo the difference between the old and new wood.
This is a pier/boat dock that we completed a few weeks ago. In just two weeks the sun had already darkened the wood. We've gotten many comments about how nice the landing looks. I'm excited about the work that we've done.

This is a shot of the runner supports under the decking. You can see the old wood that we removed. Below you can see the load that we usually left with every day.

Overall we averaged about 100 to 150 boards removed and replaced per day. One of the hardest aspects of the job was finding suitable lumber. We used YellaWood brand treated lumber. Nice wood....but tended to have a lot of crack and curves in the length of the boards. Usually I would pull out 30% of the lumber and not use it. Everything was put down with screws.....no nails. This was a problem.....until I bought a Quick Drive screw gun. Basically it allows the user to stand up and drive the screws in a relaxed posture. Also...the screws were in strip form and automatically fed themselves. Nice. A real time saver. Well worth the price. In the picture below you can see Aaron (my father-in-law) holding the screw gun. The guy to his right is Amos. The guy in the water off to the left is J.D. Not shown is Mike. I would not have been able to do the work that was done without the skill and labor of these guys. Like I said before......I've learned a lot on this job. It was a great learning experience and confidence booster as a contractor. Also, I've really developed an appreciation for Rainbow Landing and it's availability to the public. I've even been fishing a couple of times with my nephew Aaron. I'm not done with the job yet.....but the finish line is only a few steps away.

GEORGE

Greetings. This is George. His story is this: I was with Aaron (father-in-law) one day at Whisenant's feed store in Steele Alabama. Denise and I had just gotten Cleo (our little pygmy goat) and wanted to get her a companion. So while at the feed store a gentleman walks up to us and asks if we would like a free pygmy goat. He sparked my curiosity. He said that the goat was grown....a male.....and needed a home. George was purchased as a baby for this guys grandchildren. He said that they had played with him until one day they lost interest in him and now he (George) needed some other goats to be around. George had been neutered as well. Sounded good to me.......

So Aaron and I got George and brought him home with us. I found out one thing really quickly.......see if you can figure it out........
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Yep! You guessed it.

He is very unassuming. He did put up a good fight when we were loading him up to bring him home. But I would have never thought he'd be this mean. George is very cunning. He waits until you feel secure and busy with the task at hand.......and WAMMO! That's George. You know......Vicki (Denise's sister) made an astute observation. She said that no wonder the grandchildren didn't want to play with him anymore.......he probably beat them up all the time. Beware of free goats!

On a better note...........

We've been enjoying the birds this fall. Denise keeps them in food and water and they keep us entertained. Denise has tried to photo them....but out camera isn't the greatest at zoom shots. But you get the idea.

Our ducks are doing well. We did lose one. The smallest of the 3. The other two are growing day by day. They've really taken to life down the barn.

I've been working on a place for out pygmy goats to live. Aaron told us that we could use a portion of the pasture that's fenced in with a little shack (in the background) to raise them. I decided to put up a new fence along the front (not shown) and build a nice entrance for us to walk in. I may have gone a bit overboard but I think it's worth it. I built a nice iron gate decorated with horse shoes.

This was my first attempt at welding a large piece. It took me all day to put it together. I then painted it black and hung it on the posts. It excites me to be able to create functional pieces like this. I'm looking forward to making more! -JGR

Astounded by God once again...October 7, 2008

Today is an important anniversary between God and me. I didn't even think of it when I first got up. Sometimes "waking" is a process with me. I had just been lamenting the fact that I wasn't writing poetry anymore, after reading some poetry sites, when a poem began to come to me concerning this anniversary. I thought it was really cool how the poem was my gift to God and His gift to me. His faithfulness and love, His multifacetedness, His very being: All continue to astound, delight and mystify me. I am so thankful! KDR