Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sunday Faith Blog....for those of you who could also use some tranquility



This is a town in Holland with no roads, just small river ways. The tranquility seemed to me just what we could all use. I'd love to sit with you on that little bench in the picture just above and talk and relax..... away from politics and partisanship and taxes due and everything else on our minds these days. How's that sound?

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you...." Isaiah 54:4
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

Have a peaceful Sunday, my friends, don't let the waters sweep over you.......xxx
z

16 comments:

lovelyprism said...

Wow. Can I come with you if I promise to be quiet? That looks absolutely perfect right now.

Always On Watch said...

Wish that I could put myself in those pictures. I need a vacation from everything!

The Merry Widow said...

AOW-I think alot of us could use that for a couple of weeks!

:sigh:

Nice to know that HE won't let us drown...even when it feels like it.

A good book...

tmw

Beth said...

A good message for today thanks.

Chuck said...

Today is a day we need a little calm

cube said...

Thank you for that moment of peace, Z. I really needed it. My nerves are frazzled.

JINGOIST said...

Thanks for the beautiful pictures Z! To all you good Christians, have a BLESSED Sabbath today! If you ever attend a synagogue, you'll hear Isaiah chanted from ther bima. Rabbis are partial to the beauty and poetry of Isaiah too.

54:2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

54:3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

54:4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

54:5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

Z said...

I'm almost afraid to turn television on...I just woke up and knew we'd need a blog like this today! I'm so glad you came by, everyone, and that it might help just imagining yourself so calm and in such beauty.

So...it's off to get mad and fearful and...and then come back and look at these pictures! :-)

Jingo, thanks...Isaiah's full wonderful passages...
You know, you guys skip ONE, though :-)

Anonymous said...

Z, Oh my is there anyplace more inviting? I'll just echo everyone else here.

When do we leave?

Pris

Faith said...

So beautiful, So peaceful. How nice to know there is such a place on this planet!

Anonymous said...

... "He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. ..."

That war-torn, socialist Europe now overrun with immigrants from the darkest dreariest societies on earth (each a tragic anomaly in the West) could still preserve tranquil oases of Old World Civilization like these venerable bastions of peace, comfort and well-being is most encouraging.

There is unbelievably beautiful pristine wilderness and unspoiled natural beauty today in areas that not long ago lay behind the Iron Curtain.

"... Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth be carried into the midst of the sea, and the waters thereof roar and be troubled. There is a river the streams of which shall make glad the people of God..."

The world belongs to GOD -- not to His enemies.

~ FreeThinke

Z said...

FT...you can't imagine the beauty of European areas...I've been to Northern German towns not unlike this, too.

I hope you enjoyed my scripture that I specifically chose for the photos, too.

Anonymous said...

What beautiful photos and a lovely post to go with it!

HAM

Anonymous said...

You know, Z, there is a weird disconnection in this. Most of us conservatives openly despise "socialist Europe" and act as though becoming what (they think) Europe is would be the worst fate imaginable.

Holland is the MOST liberal country imaginable. Most of Europe and certainly Britain have gone completely over to the left long ago, and YET all this incredible BEAUTY remains, while OUR country gets uglier by thee minute with endless strip malls, trailer parks, cookie-cutter developments and huge displays of BAD TASTE everywhere.

I was VERY impressed and touched by your portrait of Tante Nana. One of the many things I took from that lovely piece was the realization that, apparently, even during World War II, and living in a country on the losing side Tante Nana was able to own and enjoy the use of that lovely house you sowed us, and able to maintain her solid, placid lifestyle in the midst of one of the greatest horror shows the world has ever known.

It couldn't have been easy, and yet she DID it. I doubt if it was just "luck." As you describe here there was a serenity and a solidity about the woman that few-if-any Americans of today possess.

Maybe we DO need to revisit the Old World? Socialism or not I have to say it looks far more attractive than than the world we currently inhabit.

I have a lifelong friend who's lived in France since 1968. He loves it there, and would never even DREAM of coming back to the USA.

Would you consider leaving this country? I sure would NOW, but it's awfully late for me to pull up stakes and start over. The money would run out too soon, even if I manage to live another ten years.

At any rate, if places like these pictures here really do exist, why not seek them out? Or does one have to be worth 150-million minimum even to think of such a thing?

I've STUDIED real estate in the British Isles via the net, and anything the least bit affordable looks like a HUT in comparison to what I have here.

Cloward-Piven is DEFINITELY being employed by this administration. Real estate is now a NON-investment to those of us who've owned property for the past ten years.

The Communists who have taken over today -- and there are SO many Communist sympathizers among the upper-middle and rich classes you wouldn't believe -- will virtually CONFISCATE our private property by TAXING us into bankruptcy.

The handwriting has been on the wall for a LONG time. Now it's outlined in BLINKING NEON.

A tiny thatched roof cottage surrounded by greenery in some tucked away village in the Old World looks awfully good to me right now.

But HOW could one hope to get there? Only in our dreams, I fear.

~ FT

Z said...

FT, I'm quite sure nobody loves this country MORE than I do and yes, I would gladly leave tomorrow for long periods of time, but only if I could return whenever I felt like it and had a home here.

There's a different lifestyle there and I can't really discuss it here, I've found, because some people get very defensive!! I kind of understand that but I"ve known when to downplay my feelings about Europe, trust me!

Mr Z and I noticed friends could go to a casual restaurant (long wooden tables you all sit around, friend and stranger...in little groups..into the night, with beer or wine and whatever you're eating) and you talk...you argue politics and get heated and then LET IT GO, you have a beer and you're friends.
No big change...no division, really.

Italy's had about 50 governments since the second world war, but it's STILL ITALY.
No big change...

The French don't have English signs all over the place, and you will NEVER get "for English (or Arabic), push 2" NEVER EVER.

Example after example...

We're giving our country AWAY to political correctness; paying for illegals (which Germany and France have to do but they don't WELCOME the illegals like WE do!), hyphenating our own nationalities as if there IS no AMERICAN,
having no official LANGUAGE!!!!, etc etc...

AND, you will NEVER HEAR A PROMINENT FRENCHMAN OR GERMAN OR ITALIAN OR BELGIAN OR SPANIARD, etc, etc. EVER TALK AGAINST THEIR COUNTRIES when they're not IN their country... like I heard Clinton do in England when I lived in paris..live on Skye TV...or the Dixie Chicks and other celebs do in Europe...you'll NEVER see other nationalities SLAM THEIR COUNTRY like OUR LEFT DOES..NEVER.

I don't know where we're going but our leftist mentality here has created a very dangerous situation.

I'm quite sure those homes in the pix aren't that expensive...but, yes, Europe can be HIGH...but mostly in the cities...

Yes, I'd go live there again..I LOVED it. I loved the more relaxed lifestyle, the cherishing of customs in their countries, ...

whatever. I'm here, you're here, and we've seen just how downhill the left took us today..and they're still in charge.

BUT, we have to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT..I believe people are angry enough now to DO SOMETHING!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Z, for an honest, thoughtful answer.

I love this country very much too, but at the same time I'm disgusted with the GIMME GIMME GIMME! mentality that has taken over.

My mother and father were almost bankrupted by my father's chronic illness -- an illness that spanned 25 years -- but they never even dreamed that the GOVERNMENT ought to help them.

Americans have been conditioned (mostly by TV ads, I think) to believe they HAVE to have lots and lots of expensive THINGS in order to be "happy."

Well, when my family was all alive and we had far LESS than we do today, but we were so HAPPY to spend time together just sharing family meals, picnics and playing cards and board games and little rids out into "the country."

There was nothing to it, but it meant EVERYTHING. I'd rather have those times back than a mansion in five cities and a private yacht.

We CAN do with MUCH less. Ass a people we need to learn to be less greedy, less selfish and less materialistic.

It ways somewhere in the Bible "Give me neither poverty nor riches."

YES!!!

~ FT