RV Havin Fun!

Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Beach, Florida

After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.  The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” ~ Matthew 4:2-3     We talked yesterday about why Jesus was sent into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted.  Now we’re getting into how.  First, why forty?  There’s a lot of Old Testament correlation around the number forty – the Israelites wandered in the desert 40 years (Numbers 32:13).  Moses and Elijah both fasted for 40 days as they drew near to God. (Deuteronomy 9:9, I Kings 19:8) and several others.  Fasting that long makes a body weak.  Jesus wasn’t trying to prove anything, but He took this time to draw near to God and to acknowledge His dependence on Him – even though He was the Son of God.  It was this time in a physically weakened human state that Satan came to Jesus to tempt Him.  When does the evil one usually tempt us?  It’s at our weakest point, whether physically or mentally.  He never tries to tempt us when we’re strong.  He roars around like a lion seeking who he can devour. (I Peter 5:8)  Satan isn’t questioning whether or not Jesus is the Son of God, he’s taunting Him.  It would’ve been nothing for Jesus to do what Satan suggested, but then He wouldn’t be relying on God to care for Him.  What is your area of greatest weakness?  Where does Satan tempt you the most? 

It’s Palm Sunday and we visited First Baptist of Fernandina Beach.  Turned out, the Pastor was at Part 3 of a three part series on money (eye roll).  We tithe, but we still don’t like hearing messages about money.  Weird, huh?  Well, this one was different. The Pastor spoke on the lavish generosity of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet, in the home of Simon the (former) Leper, and the reaction of Judas (the thief and betrayer). 

As he was trying to explain to us the value of the perfume Mary used, we learned a few things.  First of all, the perfumed oil came from India, created from wild roses that grew exclusively in the Himalayan mountains.  The petals were crushed and the oil used for perfume.  Two to three drops would last at least 48 hours.  His point being, that this gift would’ve wafted around Jesus for a long time – even through His crucifixion – allowing Him (as a man) to remember the love of those who believed, and overshadowing the scorn of those who did not.

The Pastor even quoted Coco Channel, “(perfume scent) announces your arrival and prolongs your departure.”  I experienced an example of this in days long gone by.  I had come to our church in the middle of the week for something.  A friend of mine came in some time later, and upon discovering me there made the announcement that she knew I was in the building because when she walked in, she could smell my perfume.  Isn’t that crazy??

The pastor continued to make his point about the extravagance of Mary’s gift by telling us he’d done some contemporary research and came up with Parfum VI by Gianni Vive Sulman: $89,000 and enjoyed by both Mike Tyson and Michael Jackson.  I looked it up because I couldn’t remember the full name of it to share with you, and discovered (at least from my perspective) that most likely, it isn’t so much the scent, as it is the packaging that’s expensive.  There are diamonds surrounding the stopper, and the box has gold hinges and a gold key, plus there are rubies and more diamonds.  I couldn’t find out how many ounces you get for that price.

But I discovered another one that goes for $1.5 mill!  It’s Shumukh by Nabeel made in Dubai, and again, it would seem it’s the container it comes in that makes it expensive.  I wonder what I’d have to pay to get mine in a plain glass container with a plain spritzer and pop-off top?

Anyway, I digress, this really wasn’t the point of the message at all.  The point was for us to begin dreaming big generosity dreams.  What would we do if we suddenly had money to dispose of?  He suggested we begin a Generosity Bucket List.  I LOVE that idea!!  Much better than a selfish one!  We never know but that God will use us to further His Kingdom by honoring that list.  And the list can contain both large and small things.  I mean sure, we could put funding a mission trip on it or redecorating our church.  But what about giving a 50% tip to all our servers instead of 10% – or less.  What about simply being open to the Spirit’s leading and leaving an envelope of money anonymously on the doorstep of someone in need?  And it’s not just money.  What about giving food?  Or our time?  Or lending our expertise for free?  A batch of cookies for the neighborhood children?  The list is endless! 

When Blaine became the leader of a mission group from our old church, my job was to encourage the people of the church – all the people – to participate.  It was an older congregation, and many weren’t physically able to do much.  Some simply didn’t have the resources to give as they may’ve liked.  But I did the math and challenged the attenders that even if each person gave $1/week, above and beyond their regular giving, we would accumulate over $900 during the course of the preparation time.  Many took me up on my challenge, much to the dismay of the treasurers.  😊

Start thinking!  What can you do?  How can you be a person known by God for charity with what belongs to Him in the first place?

After lunch today, we took on a mountain bike trail within the confines of the Park.  Come on, now.  We’re at the beach.  How mountainous could it be?  It wasn’t.  Sand, roots and some very small hills.  That’s it.

And yet.

Blaine fell off the trail and rolled into a ‘ravine’. 

There were some narrow places on this trail, and his rear tire hit a tree as he rolled over some roots.  He lost his balance and because the trail was so narrow and there was no ground on the left side, he had no place to put his foot down.  So I watched him fall in slow motion.  He did manage to roll.

Injuries sustained?  A bright red line across his back from one side to the other. A scraped forearm and a slightly punctured knee.  Not too bad.  I think his pride was injured more.

Later in the day, his shoulder was a bit sore, but overall, he was fine.  Thank goodness!  Enjoy the pictures from the day.  There aren’t many.

We’re planning on experiencing a ‘first’ tomorrow! Tune in and see what we were up to!

Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, Keystone Heights, Florida

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ~ Matthew 4:1     Have you ever asked yourself why He had to endure this?  Hebrews 2:18 offers insight, “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”  Jesus was God, certainly, but as unbelievable as it may seem, He was also a flesh and blood man, who “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)  This temptation to sin was very real, and was just as strong in Him as it is in us. Keep in mind that temptation in and of itself is not sin.  It’s yielding to the temptation that becomes sin. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (I Corinthians 10:13) Two more things.  Most scholars believe that Satan tempted Jesus during the entire 40-day fast in the desert, but only the final three are recorded for us.  And lastly, keep in mind that a test is something given by God in order to improve us.  A temptation is given by Satan with the intent of destroying us or our witness for Him.  So back to my original ‘why’ question.  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one Who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

How many of us have been caught believing a tale told us by a loved one or friend?  I get caught almost every year by my humorous, tale-weaving husband, and this year was no different.  In addition, my cousin’s wife nailed me too.

I’ll share Blaine’s.  It was fairly early this morning and Blaine had been looking at stuff on his ipad, when he stood and announced incredulously that our next campground – the one we were supposed to move to today – had sent an email and said they were closed!  He’s so good at pulling these things off, plus it’s happened in the past (think Covid), so I really had no reason to doubt him.  I just wondered where in the world we were going to live for the next six days.  You can’t get into a campground in Florida – especially with our size rig – unless you’ve booked a year in advance.  But very soon, he alleviated my concern with those time-honored words, “April Fool’s!”.  Whew!

Today’s drive was pretty stressful for Blaine with tons of traffic in multiple lanes, construction and wind.  

Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Beach, Florida

By the time we got checked in and set up, he was ready for an early dinner of grilled cheese and a relaxing walk on the beach!

We headed in the direction of the Park’s namesake to see the fort, intending to walk past or around it, whatever was available to us from the outside.  We never made it that far.

Just as we walked up to the fort area, three guys got really excited, so we figured the one had a fish on the line and we wanted to see what he’d caught.

Well.

He pulled.  He let his line out.  He pulled.  He let his line out.  He walked the beach.  He pulled….  We talked about leaving, but instead we sat on the rocks and watched.

His rod bowed.  His rod straightened.  And on and on it went.

For seventy minutes!  And then . . . .

His line snapped!  Oh snap!!!! 😊 We felt so badly for him!  And his young daughter who’d also been waiting.

Fortunately, we were still rewarded for our attendance when one of the other guys managed to quickly reel in a six or seven foot nurse shark.

All that effort, and they have to clip and remove the hook and send them back out to sea.  There was a Park Ranger there to make sure they did, too. 

We just don’t get fishing.  I mean.  What’s the point if you can’t even keep it??

We’d been there so long, we thought surely we’d have a nice sunset to watch on the way back, but alas.  It wasn’t meant to be.  Still.  It was pretty nice to just sit around doing nothing!  A rare thing for us!

Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, Keystone Heights, Florida

As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water.  At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is My Son whom I love; with Him I am well-pleased.”  ~ Matthew 3:16-17    This was a rare event in which all three members of the Trinity are seen together – in the Father’s Voice of confirmation and love, the Son, and the Holy Spirit Who has now descended from Heaven and rests upon/within Jesus to empower the God-Man for His ministry on earth.  And John the Baptist was privileged to witness this!  I don’t know if others heard/saw/realized what was happening or if this was just a revelation to John.  But what a privilege to be present!  It has now been confirmed by Almighty God Himself that Jesus is the Son of God!  Jesus’ baptism also fulfills prophecy from Isaiah 11:2.

Way back when, we had a leftover lemon.  Then we went to Sandy and Eric’s and didn’t have opportunity to use it.  Then, after two weeks of playing with them, when it was time to leave, I searched for something to use this old lemon for besides cutting it up and dropping pieces into water and iced tea.

I discovered this great-sounding recipe on-line for a Greek soup that called for exactly one lemon.  The day before we left Jupiter, we menu-planned and went shopping and bought a loaf of this really fantastic bread Sandy introduced us to that’s made in Publix bakery.  To go with the soup that used – among other things – a lemon and four chicken thighs.  Oh, yeah.  We bought those too.

The days went by and no soup was made, and the lemon became shriveled.  The bread was in the frig and the thighs were in the freezer, so they were okay, but time was running out for the bread too.

It was grocery day again; we bought another lemon and pitched the first one. 

A definite date was set for Greek soup.

The lemon looked great.  The bread was hanging on.  The thighs were thawed.

We headed out for about 4 ½ hours to bike and hike and generally take in as much of this park as we possibly could in one four-hour period (remember, we move tomorrow).

Blaine seems to enjoy pushing me beyond my flatland biking comfort zone and believe it or not, where we are right now actually has some hills – and a ravine.  I wasn’t particularly impressed with what we found, but I guess when you’re talking flat Florida . . .

Anyway, I looked up the definition of ravine.  According to Webster (yep.  He’s still around.), it’s a small narrow steep-sided valley that is larger than a gully and smaller than a canyon and that is usually worn by running water.

Well, I guess it fits then.  😊

Once we completed our hot sight-seeing venture, we ate fruit popsicles, showered and I opened up the soup recipe.  In bright yellow (which I added way back when) was a box that said, “3-4 hours prep time”.  Well, so much for the soup idea. 

Now what?

Plan B.  That’s what.

At least for the thawed chicken.  Blaine dropped ‘em on the grill, I threw together salads and some Stovetop, and voila!  Dinner was served.

Now we just have to find something to make with the bread and lemon . . . .

I’m thinkin’ grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner after travel day tomorrow.  The lemon?  Who knows.