Saturday, January 28, 2017

Em's New Ute


In other news, Emilee has bought herself a ute!
I will be posting soon our latest adventure,
but until then, here's a sneak peek.

Just have to fix her up with spotties and a light bar
and other little things, and she's Territory ready!!
(the ute, I mean)




Happy Birthday Emilee



Yes, today Emilee turns 17!
Our run of family birthdays is almost over
for another year.




Wednesday, January 25, 2017

He Staggered Not............


Romans 4:20
He staggered not at the promise of God
through unbelief;
but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God.

I recently read this verse in my Bible reading,
and since then, I can't get it out of
my mind and memory.
I had never noticed this verse before
and this is the only time in the Bible that the word
staggered” is mentioned.

Here, it is talking about the promise of God
to give Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age,
and to make of him the 'father of many nations'.

It comes from the Greek word 'diakrino',
which in this context, has the meaning to hesitate,
to doubt, to waver. We often use this word as
'to work or move unsteadily'
or to 'arrange events so they don't happen at the same time'. Another way we use it is
'astonish or deep shock'.

Now, I know that when Abraham was told
that his wife would have a son,
he would have been 'staggered'!
But that is not the meaning here.

The word here has the meaning of not moved,
not doubting, not hesitating.
Abraham was not discouraged and
was fully assured that what God said He would do,
He would do!

Take a look at verse 21
And being fully persuaded that,
what he had promised,
he was able also to perform”.

That sounds to me like Abraham had no doubts
that God could and would perform His promise.
It didn't matter that it was impossible
and to the human mind and comprehension,
absolutely crazy and unfathomable.
God is a worker of miracles and if we only
had 'faith as a grain of mustard seed',
we could move mountains!

So, what does all this have to do with us,
and why does the Bible
have so many verses on faith?
To quote something Dad said recently,
“Doubt minimises the scope
of the promises of God,
but faith maximises them;
faith sees the promises to be larger than the crisis,
brighter far than the dark clouds of circumstance.”

Well put! God put this verse in the Bible for us.
He put it in there so we could see
the fruit of not 'staggering' at the promises of God.
And notice the end of the verse,
“giving glory to God”.
It's not enough just to have faith
and reap the benefits,
but we are to give all glory to God!

So many times, we as Christians,
stagger at the promises of God through unbelief.
We pray prayers that we don't really believe God will answer, they're more like wishing for a pony.
We don't have faith that God can do
what we are asking. God sees our hearts
and He knows what is behind the words we pray,
and only He knows the faith behind the prayer.
In James 1:6 it says,
“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
For he that wavereth is like a wave
of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”
Not staggering! Not doubting!

Abraham laid hold to the promise of God,
he grabbed onto it with both hands.
He “staggered not”.

I think, to me, this word 'stagger' will
always remind me of the time when
Abraham held fast to a promise of God,
and it will encourage me to
not doubt, not hesitate, not waver.

And Jesus answering saith unto them,
Have faith in God.”







Saturday, January 21, 2017

Wet Season in Full Swing


Well, our wet season is upon us and with it brings
amazing cloud formations and cooler weather.



If you didn't already know,
I love to take photos of clouds.
They are constantly changing and
the sunsets are beautiful when coupled
with phenomenal puffy white or grey clouds!



On a recent trip to Darwin,
it was amazing to see how quickly the
sky changed, from fluffy white puffs
of clouds, to dark, ominous skies,
pelting rain, then back to sunny again,
within just a matter of minutes.


Every time I look up at the sky,
I am amazed at God's creation.
We are so small and insignificant,
but God chose to bless us through the
wonders of his creation.


Psalm 8:3, 9
When I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which thou hast ordained;

O LORD our Lord, how excellent
is thy name in all the earth!




HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBI!!




Yes, Abbi is 19 today!
And who knew she was going to marry a farmer!
Sorry, Dave, she's gonna be needin' that hat!

We love you Abbi,
and we can't wait to see what a little McKenna
in a BIG hat is going to look like!



Friday, January 6, 2017

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE!


Chloe turns 14 today!
And she's still just as cute!

And yes, she still pulls this face:)

And in other news:


Dave and I just had our
birthdays too:)

But remember......


And if getting older wasn't enough,
we're going to be grandparents!!

Yeah, you read that right!
James and Abbi are going
to have a baby, so now
we reserve the right to feel
as old as we like,
and act as young as we like!!


So, on that note.........
watch out!!


And my dad can relate to this one..........














Thursday, January 5, 2017

The latest here at the Holmestead




Last week, I was able to fly over to Malanda
to visit my family, and more importantly,
to be all together with my siblings, all at the one time!
It was a whirlwind 2 days, but well worth
the trip. We haven't been all together for 8 years,
so it was a must do!


As you can see, we haven't changed much
over the years. Cough Cough.
We had a lot of good laughs,
some singing, some sight seeing,
some fast driving in Jer's little Red Bullet,
some duet playing, and a whole lot of love!
(ok, so I just put that in to be soppy)


And if you want to know where we get our
craziness from, just take a look at the old guy
in the centre of the picture! Hmmm??


A snapshot of November 2008,
and December 2016!
Yeah, I know, more grey hair and some
added weight, but we're still gorgeous!
(matter of opinion, but I don't know whose?)


The weather was beautiful, and very
un- Malanda like. We hardly saw any
rain. On a side note, it rained the whole time
I was away, here in Katherine! Go figure?


I finally got to meet my adorable little
nephew, Josiah, for the first time!



And here's my little brother:)


I also finally visited the Spy Camera Museum
in Herberton, I mean I only lived there for
20 years and hadn't done it, but hey!


Wow! I could have stayed there for hours!
It was so interesting and I wanted to take all
the cameras home to add to my measly collection!


I did the falls circuit with Jer and kids
and Lauren and Linet. The water was freezing
but the kids didn't seem to mind.

And of course, you can't go past Millaa Millaa
lookout on a clear day without stopping!



And a lovely ladies tea party at
Nerada Tea Plantation,
despite the fact that most of us ladies felt like
a coffee at that time of the morning, and of course,
um, we were at a TEA plantation,
and, well, no coffee, sorry!
But we all enjoyed drowning ourselves in
pots of various teas and cakes and scones.


We even got to see 3 tree kangaroos!
Bonus! Except that I didn't bring my long lens
along because of added weight so I had to make
do with some movie footage instead.
Still, exciting stuff!

And of course, Mum's beautiful flame tree
out the back had to be photographed!


What an amazing God we serve, who is so
interested in detail in His creation
and the delight it brings us to sit and
gaze upon all He's made and the lessons
His creation can teach us.

But alas, all good things must come to an end
and the trip was over much too soon.
More memories made and hearts warmed.



As I flew into Darwin, I praised God that He
gave me the opportunity and means to make the
trip. Time is short and no one knows when they
might breathe their last breath, and step onto
Heaven's shores. What an amazing sight that will
be! None of the sights we see here on earth
will even compare to seeing our Saviour face to face.

James 4:14
Whereas ye know not
what shall be on the morrow.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapour,
that appeareth for a little time,
and then vanisheth away.