We originally talked about attending one of those really old churches in Savannah. First Baptist, to be exact, but they can’t spell (see previous post 😊), so we decided not to.
Instead, we attended the Skidaway Island Baptist Church, about 5 minutes from home.
Their only drawback? They’re only 20 years old . . . 😊 But what an incredibly friendly church! It’s the way all churches should be – especially small ones where it’s pretty obvious when you have visitors. We were greeted by no less than a dozen people and invited to donuts and coffee (every good Baptist church has food!) and/or Sunday School by at least a half dozen of them. (Oh boy . . . I even talk like I have donuts on the brain. Never met a donut I didn’t like, but Blaine dragged me away before I could indulge . . .)
Their worship in song was a bit different – just a guitar and piano and kinda folksy-sounding, but good. The man leading worship actually reminded us a lot of a man we knew back when we attended Springfield Baptist – Dave Claytor. Dave didn’t sing, but this worship leaders look and mannerisms were so much like Dave’s it was a bit uncanny. Well, they say everyone has a twin somewhere. We found Dave’s!
The Pastor’s focus for the next year will be The Year of The Word. He said if you read the Bible straight through, it would take about 72 hours. Doesn’t sound like much does it? I’ve tried several times to read the Bible in a year, though and have never even completed that. It takes awhile and it’s kinda overwhelming. I think because of the content. It’s not like a novel where you can skim descriptions if you want. Every word is important.
Anyway, the Pastor also pointed out that if you feel any anxiety over adding reading God’s Word to your daily routine (meaning “I just don’t have time!”), maybe you need to replace something in your life. If you want to know God/Jesus/Holy Spirit, you have to read His Word and spend time in prayer. And it takes discipline. Just like any other routine – brushing your teeth, exercising (for those of you who need to do that 😊), eating, spending time with family/friends, etc, etc, etc. You always make the time for the things that are important to you. Jesus knew that. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
Reading God’s Word will help keep us from sinning (Psalm 119:11) and if we want to know Jesus better, we need to know His Word (John 1:1-5 tells us that Jesus is The Word).
The scripture reading today was II Kings Chapters 22-24. It’s about how during the reign of Josiah, the high Priest Hezekiah was rummaging through stuff in the temple storage area and uncovered the Old Testament Scriptures. The Pastor pointed out that God’s people had neglected His Word for so long, they didn’t even realize it was missing! We can be much the same way.
When we neglect reading, praying, attending church, eventually we don’t even miss it anymore. Unfortunately, we easily dismiss God as not necessary or irrelevant. But He’s definitely not! But we can take comfort in knowing that God loves us, so He’s always ‘sitting and waiting’ for us to return, and when we do, He welcomes us with open arms! We closed with the following hymn. Wonderful words.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
“Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
“The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”
That’s a lot of preaching today. Sorry. But not really. Sometimes God just lays things on my heart. Today was one of those days.
It’s New Year’s Eve, so we’re eating party food all day! Shrimp cocktail (because the store didn’t have any canned), shrimp cheese ball (that’s what we needed the canned for – I chopped up some of the cocktail ones), clam dip, these hot sandwiches that my Grandma Glass used to make (ham, cheese, and a sauce of Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, poppy seeds and butter), leftover potato salad, cole slaw and cheesecake!
Now that’s a lot of food for two people, so we decided to walk some. We ended up walking about 6 ½ miles right from the campground!
Somewhere around here there’s an interpretive center with a giant 20’ sloth skeleton. . . .
Walking through the campground to the Big Ferry trail
It was a strange walk. First of all, all those miles were completely flat. And sandy. Most of the time it was overcast and quite cool and it seemed there was very little color in anything. The foliage was odd too, as you can see from the pictures. Some of them almost look black and white.
These were taken during the sunny part. : )
See the ax marks? They’re from the cops who found the still and destroyed it.
Blaine spotted this Egret hunting
A young White Ibis
Observation Tower
That’s the Egret and a Great Blue Heron. Doesn’t look so Great in this picture does it?
We stopped for a minute to be still and quiet and take in the sounds of the birds and were able to watch bluebirds flitting around near us!
This is the best we could do. : )
As we approached home, we ran into the Center and found the Giant! Way cool! The ranger stationed there was able to identify the bird we didn’t know (the Ibis) and take our picture with their sloth. She also told us that the original they found on this very property is in the Smithsonian and the one we were looking at was a copy of one found in Florida.
It kinda makes me wonder how many of these types of things turned up during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars when men were digging around making forts. Hmm…….
On the news tonight, a local female newscaster was bemoaning the cold temperatures that we’ve had and were expected to continue. Lately, the high temperatures around here are lower than their normal low temps. What tickled our funny bone was when she said she was glad the kids were still off school as it’s just too cold for them to be out of the house. Ha! Obviously she’s not from anywhere North of the Carolinas! It’s been in the 30’s. 😊
Yes, it was New Year’s Eve. Yes, many people stay up till midnight to ring in the New Year with parties and/or fireworks (or at least watch TV), but I was exhausted from lack of sleep the night before. Bedtime tonight? 9:30pm.