Hello, again.

I'm sorry to say that I had to delete the chat channel for Thieves Of Wonders and start from scratch. Below is the link for the new chat channel for TOW. Join again and we'll keep just keep enjoying ourselves.🥰❤️

~Scott⭐️

https://t.me/+rZtgGRNlb8kzMGNh

Prayer of Surrender: Lord, I surrender the lies I’ve believed about myself to You. Renew my mind with Your truth and help me to see myself as You see me. Replace the faulty mindsets that have driven my actions with thoughts that align with Your Word. Transform my heart and mind for Your glory. Amen.

At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do.

Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned."

And Abraham said, "I will swear."

When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized, Abimelech said, "I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today."

So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.

Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart.

And Abimelech said to Abraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?"

He said, "These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well."

Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath.

So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.

Genesis 21:22-34

Verses 22-34 Abimelech felt sure that the promises of God would be fulfilled to Abraham. It is wise to connect ourselves with those who are blessed of God; and we ought to requite kindness to those who have been kind to us. Wells of water are scarce and valuable in eastern countries. Abraham took care to have his title to the well allowed, to prevent disputes in future. No more can be expected from an honest man than that he be ready to do right, as soon as he knows he has done wrong. Abraham, being now in a good neighbourhood, stayed a great while there. There he made, not only a constant practice, but an open profession of his religion. There he called on the name of the Lord, as the everlasting God; probably in the grove he planted, which was his place of prayer. Abraham kept up public worship, in which his neighbours might join. Good men should do all they can to make others so. Wherever we sojourn, we must neither neglect nor be ashamed of the worship of Jehovah.

~Matthew Henry

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Colossians 3:12-14

Christian, You Are Chosen, Holy, Loved: Colossians 3:12–14, Part 1 | Desiring God
https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/christian-you-are-chosen-holy-loved

Put on Bowels of Mercy: Colossians 3:12–14, Part 2 | Desiring God
https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/put-on-bowels-of-mercy

The Perplexities of Forgiving and Forbearing: Colossians 3:12–14, Part 3 | Desiring God
https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/the-perplexities-of-forgiving-and-forbearing

How Does Love Bind Everything Together? Colossians 3:12–14, Part 4 | Desiring God
https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/how-does-love-bind-everything-together

Evening

"Blessed is he that watcheth."
Revelation 16:15

"We die daily," said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not in this day called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test; but the tests of Christian life, at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have to bear the sneer of the world--that is little; its blandishments, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy, are far worse. Our danger is lest we grow rich and become proud, lest we give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world, and lose our faith. Or if wealth be not the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, if we may be hugged to death by the bear, the devil little cares which it is, so long as he destroys our love to Christ, and our confidence in him. I fear me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher times. We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted ground, and are most likely to fall asleep to our own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love to Jesus a vehement flame. Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God. Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display his omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer things, as well as in the rougher, "We are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

Bible Verses on Deliverance
1. Psalm 34:17, ESV
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
Call out to God.  He hears the cries of his children and wants to deliver you.
2. Psalm 107:6
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
This verse illustrates God’s desire to deliver his children from all sorts of distress.  Again, call out to God.  He is waiting to help you.
3. Psalm 50:15
And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
When God delivers us, he also changes our hearts.  As a result, our lives bring him glory.
4. 2 Samuel 22:2
He said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.”
Do you need a safe place to weather the storm surrounding you?
God is your Rock. He is a fortress surrounding you.  He wants to deliver you.  Turn to him and declare this truth.
5. James 5:16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
God delivers us from the power of sin when we bring our sins into the light with one another.
Do you need deliverance from sin?
Bring your sin into the light with someone you trust.  You will take one large step toward deliverance.
6. Galatians 5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Every day, we choose to submit to the slavery of sin or the freedom we find in Christ.  Bear in mind that some of our sins even seem socially acceptable.
Perfectionism, workaholism, and people-pleasing might even earn us praise.  Yet we are called to walk in the freedom found in Christ.  Ask Jesus to lead you in this freedom today.  He will direct you.
7. Romans 6:14
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
God imparts his grace when he works in our lives to do what we cannot do for ourselves.
Do you feel stuck in some area of your life?  Ask God to impart his grace.  When he does, he will begin leading you toward freedom.

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

~John Muir

A woodland trail in Settrington opens onto a vista of rural Yorkshire.

Allen's Hummingbird
(Selasphorus sasin)
Location: Northern California, CA, USA