Growing readership
Ninety-eight people have now signed up to receive my free weekly email post. I pray several times each week for these readers. Specifically I ask God to give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him better, especially that we would grow in our knowledge of his love and holiness, and I pray the Lord’s prayer for us.
Favorite posts
I had a hard time selecting my three favorite posts of the period. If you have not been reading regularly since May 7th, try to make time to go back and read all those posts, because they will change your life. The topic of the fatherly love of God is that powerful and important. My favorites:
Your Heavenly Father Cares about Every Aspect of Your Life
The Intimacy of Absolute Trust
The Connection between the Father’s Love and the Children’s Daily Bread
Blog and personal news
You probably noticed I began using a small image of the blog banner’s blue sky and clouds at the end of each article, along with the theme Scripture:
“Thus says the Lord…Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me” Jeremiah 9:23-24
I shot that picture looking out our apartment window a few years ago. Nancy and I have lived here on the 20th floor for over nine years, and we have taken thousands of photos of the sky. There is no end to God’s creativity in the heavens. Below is an amazing photo we took of a storm moving in recently (that horizontal line above the dark clouds is the leading edge of the incoming front, not a window curtain! I’ve never seen anything like it).
On the subject of design, below is my favorite color combination in the lead image of the last two months, which I used in the June 17th post. Even with the minimal changes I make each week in theme images, I enjoy the creativity of combining colors and words. I don’t choose any color that strikes me; rather, I have a palette of about 15 colors along with black, white, and all the shades of gray from which I mix and match. Yes, my favorite color is blue. The background’s dark blue in this image reminds me of the color of the sky at nightfall in summer, which I love beyond description.
Nancy and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on June 22. We did the garden circuit over several days. We enjoyed perfect weather at the Chicago Botanic Garden. We also celebrated by going to the Japanese Garden at Jackson Park and the rose garden of Grant Park. The Lord is good, and my love is a red, red rose.
A few weeks ago my son Aaron and I attended a free rehearsal of the Chicago Symphony. Aaron lives in the same apartment complex as we do and leads worship at our church. He is a man of God who like his father earnestly wants to know the Lord and his ways and thus is a careful, observant, meditative reader of God’s Word. He is blessing to me and all who know him.
In upcoming weeks I have more wonderful topics to explore under the fatherly love of God, so be sure to tune in to upcoming emails.
Vision of knowing God
The effort you put into knowing God better is worth it.
Knowing God as he actually is changes you into a better, more loving person. 1 John 4:7–8 says, “Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Knowing God increases the level of God’s grace and peace in your life. Second Peter 1:2 says, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
Keep reading every week and improve your life in every way.