Oh the Glory of Your Presence

If I had to name my favorite blessing of the past week, it would have to be the glory of the presence of God.  Thank you, Lord, for your manifest presence in my life.

The next favorite blessing would have to be one of the guys at the Ranch, Daniel, asking me to speak on his behalf at his graduation and be his mom for the day.

His mother lives in Illinois and because of health reasons is unable to travel.  Oh how humbled and honored I felt.

She had written a congratulatory letter that I read, I spoke a little bit about the joy of watching the guys grow in their faith from week to week as we teachers meet with them and study God's Word.  I also read a poem that Daniel wrote in one of my classes.  I would like to share that with you.

ALUMINUM PRISON

I was in an aluminum prison

One that I crawled into of my own accord.

The love I had for this prison kept me there for a long time.

It was a beer can.

But when I wanted out,

I COULD NOT GET OUT.

Then I called upon the Lord and He sent angels to rescue me

and told of a promise land I could go to,

but I had to walk through a fire to get there.

I said I would do anything.

Going through the fire I doubted the Lord a little

But kept the faith.

Once through the fire I saw the Promise Land--

It was beautiful,

A lake, green grass and a ranch I live on.

I gave thanks to the Lord and His angels.

I don't ever want to go back to that aluminum prison again--

Or even look back.


I finished the study of Daniel with www.shereadstruth.com.  Oh what a blessing it was.  While I learned a lot about the prophetic parts of Daniel there were other great truths that were wonderful to revisit.  It is my desire to lead many to righteousness, which is Jesus.  I am excited about the prospect of teaching it to the guys at the Ranch.

Another big blessing for me was working with dip pen and ink in a Spencerian Hand--wow!  it is going to take lots and lots of hard practice but I am up for the task I think and feel like I did improve from the one just above to the one at the top of the blog.

I did this one today and I can see a little progress in it.
This verse is from the new study with She Reads Truth.

This is one I did after studying the last chapter of Daniel--I did not use a dip pen with it.  Used some FW acrylic inks, a pilot pen (extra fine point) and some digital texturing.

On the way back from class last Tuesday, these little buttercups were making their last stand--

as fall is slowly but surely settling it.

adding a little autumn touch to the old home place--

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's fun keeping an eye and deliberately noticing all of God's blessings

but honestly He is so good to us there is just no way to keep up

with His overflowing abundance.

That is not to say we don't have our trials and tribulations--we do!

But it's so much more fun to count the joys instead of focusing on the harder stuff.

My friend I hope your week is blessed beyond compare.

Desperate Need

Linking today to WordArtWednesday

Enter With Thanksgiving

This is a "doctored" photograph of a fall arrangement on my kitchen table.  

I hope your week is filled with blessings and your heart filled with gratitude and thanksgiving.

Fall is slowly but surely coming to our area of the country.  We have had beautiful weather the last couple of days.  We will take the 80's any day although we will dance in the streets when it gets in the 70's.  

Have a wonderful week wherever you are and God's richest blessings to you.

My week included these awesome blessings.

a birthday celebration with family--yes my own--

My granddaughter, Kennedy, and I at my birthday dinner.

Getting to teach calligraphy to the guys at the Ranch.  Look at what one of my favorite students, Zac, did after I left and I forgot to leave brushes for them to work with.  He did this in pencil.  So proud of him.  A very special thank you to Lisa Engelbrecht, author of Modern Mark Making, for so graciously giving me permission to copy exemplars from her book for the guys.  

Yes, they are all my favorites!

Another great blessing is reading and studying the book of Daniel with www.shereadstruth.com

These are some of the illustrations I have done this week.

The discipline and joy of staying on the Daniel eating plan.

Squash, onions, red, yellow and orange bell peppers--oh my goodness!

Black bean burrito in a whole wheat tortilla--my favorite thing to eat on this plan.

Visiting with Jeremy, one of my favorite residents at the Ranch right now--and by the way, they are all my favorites!!  

I love watching families being restored and making new good memories!

A sister drives two and a half hours to visit her brother--

And let's don't forget the Pigs--watching a little Razorback football with our guys.

WPS!!!!!!!!!--Wooooo, Pig, Sooiiee----

Oh, how I love me some Hogs!

As visitation was winding down, I happened to notice the reflection of the flag in the front window.  Loved it.

A beautiful wedding and reception of one of the former residents of the Ranch, Matt.

Their wedding reception was held in a big event center downtown Conway and all the street lamps are decorated in the most beautiful hanging baskets.

 Matt and Sandra-God bless them always--

Two of my favorite residents at the Ranch right now celebrating with their brother who just got married. They will both be graduating next Saturday.

My precious friend, Kathy.

This was on my car temp gage.

One of the greatest blessings of the week is enduring our ONLY day this summer to be over 100 degrees--some summers we have days or weeks on end (or without end) of over 100 temps.  So, so thankful!

and the greatest by far--the FREEDOM to worship this morning at my home church, The Summit

This is a picture of the lobby or the Commons area as it is called.

© all photographs and text property of Dianne Hogue unless otherwise noted

No Smell of Fire

All of the big writing is jet black ink but it looks almost gold in some of these pictures.

Crazy!

This was taken from my journal yesterday. 

The hair of their heads was not singed.

Their clothes were not harmed

and no smell of fire had

come upon them.

Daniel 3:27

And this is the finished product after I added texture and enhanced it.
Daniel is an awesome book to study.  I am reading it and studying it with
www.shereadstruth.com
Would love for you to join us.

© all photographs and text property of Dianne Hogue unless otherwise noted

What Are Our Idols?

This is a page from my journal (digitally enhanced) depicting the golden idol Nebuchadnezzar had built and told everyone they must worship.

We know the old story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And a wonderful one it is.  They didn't bend, they didn't bow, they didn't burn because a fourth man joined them in the fiery furnace.

No, most of us don't bow down to images such as the one above either, but what do we bow to?

What are our idols?

I left some space--part of it has been cropped off. I was going to list some of the things I think we bow down to but decided to leave the space for us to give God ROOM to speak to us. What are my particular idols? And another question came to my mind and was the partial reason for the way I designed the page. What in our lives (of value) is "going up in flames and coming down in ashes?

One thing in my own is my health and my weight.  I don't feel well much of the time and take too much medicine.  I am definitely overweight.

So one thing I decided to do while I was studying Daniel is to go on the Daniel eating plan.  I really hate to call it a fast because there are so many wonderful things to eat on it.

I am not suggesting this to you.  This is just something I felt like God was calling me to do for a period of time.

What I thought was going to be the hardest part has been of no consequence so far--coffee!

I hope my journal page will give you pause to think about your own life, your idols, the things in your life that you need to save from destruction or let God save.

He wants to walk in to the fire with us and save us from ourselves.

I bow down and am still before Him--speak to me Father.

© all photographs and text property of Dianne Hogue unless otherwise noted