My Beautiful Texas





Buttercups

Daddy's Roses

Texas wildflowers



More Texas wildflowers along side of road



State flower-Bluebonnets

   Today, I just wanted to share some of the beauty and  grandeur of my beautiful state, Texas.  I grew up here, with all the beauty of spring and have never lived anyplace else.  During the fall, winter, and summer this particular stretch of road and various areas I got these pictures from looks really barren and some places just plain bleak!  You would never guess there are seeds beneath the ground, as barren as it may seem, laying there under the ground hidden from view just waiting for the right season to spring forth in pure wonderment!
       Suddenly, usually in April, you are driving down a particular stretch of road and you see GORGEOUS flowers that had not been there the day before!  You would never guess this beautiful place had such potential. 
     We had one of the most horrific droughts this year.  We were not sure the wildflowers would bloom this year, or ever, for that matter because the ground was so depleted of nourishing, refreshing water!   Our ranchers had to hire Mac trucks full of hay to be driven in from other states just to feed their cattle!  I had no idea until we experienced the drought just how much was dependent on the average rainfall!  Texas is a cattle state.  The cattle are worth thousands of dollars and if you have had a steak recently it probably came from Texas. 
     Of course, if you have read many of my blogs, I cannot help but think of how many things I see relate to parables or scriptures  in the Bible and this is no different. We are like the ground according to a parable Jesus told in Mark 4.  The sower sows the word.  The seed that goes into our hearts is the word of God.  The Holy Spirit is compared with "living water'.  The Holy Spirit waters the seed planted in the ground of our hearts. 
     Suddenly,  beauty springs forth where all had looked so barren!!  We literally begin to "bloom where we are planted"!  We begin to give to others nourishment and the spiritual food of which we have partaken and suddenly beauty springs forth in them, too!
     A good example I can give you of this has to do with my son and an experience he had recently.  My son will graduate from seminary in less than a week in another state.  He will be coming home to live in Texas again.  While he has been there he worked with a young man who was an agnostic.  He would ask my son short, random questions about the Lord and my son would briefly answer them.  My son would briefly answer them because they were working, but the young man seemed satisfied with the answers my son gave.  This went on for weeks.  Suddenly (I love that word) one day the young man approached my son.  He told him, "You know I have been an agnostic."  My son replied he did know this.  He then said to my son, "Well, I wanted to let you know I am not an agnostic anymore.  I received Jesus Christ into my heart last night, and now I am a born again Christian!"  GLORY TO GOD!  My son was ecstatic!!  All the seeds he had planted in this young man from the word, the Holy Spirit had "watered", and a harvest of beauty suddenly sprang forth!! 
    Things may seem bleak for you, my dear reader.  You may have been the one planting, or you may be the one who needs a refreshing, but look for your "suddenly"!  If you have been planting by reading the word and letting the Spirit of God water you  through prayer, IT WILL COME TO PASS!! 
     At the end of my blogs I am now putting the "sinners" prayer.  If you don't know Jesus as your personal Saviour and you would like to please say this prayer in sincerity and you will be born again and on your way to heaven, too. 
     Here is a prayer that Kenneth Copeland uses in many of his books to lead people to the Lord....Confess this with your mouth and believe with your heart and you SHALL be saved, the Bible tells us.  Say aloud and believe this prayer:  "Heavenly Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus.  Your word says, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved' (Acts 2:21)  I am calling on You.  I pray and ask Jesus to come into my heart and be Lord over my life according to Romans 10:9-10: 'If thou shalt confess with mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto salvation.'  I do that now.  I confess Jesus is Lord, and I  believe in my heart God raised Him from the dead."  You are now a born again Christian!!  Congratulations! 
     It doesn't stop here!  Find a good church that teaches Jesus, read the Bible, and pray (simply talk to God as you would a friend, because this is what He is)!  Now watch for seeds of God's blessing to spring forth in your life.  Have a blessed day, all day!!