First Verse, a journey through the Psalms: Psalm 66

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Jill English Johnston

Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Psalm 66:1, TLB

I love the awesomeness of being able to access Scripture online, be able to type in a word and have every verse it appears in show up in a list for me. Even more amazing is the almost five dozen english translations I can search.

Psalm 66:1 gives us a simple edict. Sing to the Lord. Everyone. All people. The whole earth. Even creation. Throughout the Psalms, trees, mountains, oceans, birds, every living thing, every thing with breath is called to sing God’s praises. And as we search the Scriptures, we find we are called to sing in many different circumstances.

James 5:13 (CJB)
Is someone among you in trouble? He should pray. Is someone feeling good? He should sing songs of praise.

Colossians 3:16 (CJB)
let the Word of the Messiah, in all its richness, live in you, as you teach and counsel each other in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude to God in your hearts.

Ephesians 5:19 (CJB)
sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to each other; sing to the Lord and make music in your heart to him;

Acts 16:25 (CJB)
Around midnight, Sha’ul and Sila (Paul and Silas) were praying and singing hymns to God, while the other prisoners listened attentively.

Luke 19:36-38 (NLT)
As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
“Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

Mark 14:26 (NLT)
Then they (Jesus and the Disciples) sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

2 Chronicles 20:21 (CJB)
After consulting with the people, he appointed those who would sing to Adonai and praise the splendor of his holiness as they went out ahead of the army, saying, “Give thanks to Adonai, for his grace continues forever.”

1 Chronicles 15:15-16 (CJB)
and the L’vi’im (Levites) carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles on it, as Moshe (Moses) had ordered, according to what Adonai had said.
David spoke to the chief of the L’vi’im (Levites) to appoint their kinsmen to be singers making use of musical instruments — lutes, lyres and cymbals — to play loudly and raise sounds of joy.

Psalm 13:6 (CJB)
But I trust in your grace, my heart rejoices as you bring me to safety.
I will sing to Adonai, because he gives me even more than I need.

Psalm 28:7 (CJB)
Adonai is my strength and shield; in him my heart trusted, and I have been helped.
Therefore my heart is filled with joy, and I will sing praises to him.

Psalm 42:8 (NLT)
But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.

Psalm 81:2 (NLT)
Sing! Beat the tambourine. Play the sweet lyre and the harp.

Psalm 87:7 (NLT)
The people will play flutes[a] and sing, “The source of my life springs from Jerusalem!”

Psalm 90:14 (NLT)
Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.

Psalm 126:6 (NLT)
They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.

Psalm 146:2 (NLT)
I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

When we immerse ourselves in God’s truth, we lose ourselves in the wonder of who He is and what He has done. The Lord rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). How right is the response to return with our own song, for truly, He gives us a new song to sing (Psalm 40:3).

Lift up your voices today and sing to the Lord.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, you have given us ears to hear and voices to raise in praise. Let our hearts be filled with the music of heaven and may your song be on our lips.

Grace and Peace

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Building Oak Haven – selling our current home

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Jill English Johnston

Quick update. It’s been another busy week. We spent it working on our to do list, getting our Schertz home ready to put on the market with Keller Williams.

I did a little shopping, picking up a few items to add some color to the house. Jon pressure washed the outside of the house, along with the driveway and sidewalk while I worked on rearranging, packing and touch up painting. Jon also picked up a load of sod and we planted grass in our old garden area in the back yard and the side yard where all the grass had died. We mulched our flower beds and a xeriscaped pathway I had made. We also took most of the potted plants I had up to the new house and set them outside of our camper. So far, they have survived the deer. Friday the photographer came and took pictures of the house. 

Paul Swoyer brought out their equipment to start digging out our septic today, A&M Electric continues to run electrical wire and set up outlets, switches and lighting, and Chavez’s construction guys are installing our porch and patio ceilings and will finish up/fix the last few framing details and issues. Ron from Bill’s cabinet shop also came out to take measurements for our cabinets. 

In the midst of it all, we had a day full of house showings. 


Grace & Peace

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Building Oak Haven – little break

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Jill English Johnston
little miss Scarlette

little miss Scarlette

My blog this week is a bit late because we have been playing catch up after we took a much needed break. We boarded a plane and headed to Virginia Beach to visit an adorable two year old.

Swinging with Grammy

Swinging with Grammy

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend with Heather, Jarred and Scarlette. Lots of time playing with trains and little people, along with trips to the park, Mount Trashmore, and the zoo. We also visited Cornerstone Church Virginia Beach, a new church plant near Heather and Jarred’s home. We loved the heart they had for being a church family for people that don’t have one, as well as their desire to reach out to military families.

Taking a break with Grampy

Taking a break with Grampy

While we were gone, the plumbers and electricians finished trenching and set up power and water to the house. Plumbing rough in is complete, and electricians will work on their rough in this week. Jon did a walk through to note any changes we had to the final plans (which are never really final). Woods Comfort Systems also installed our heating/AC unit. I cannot believe how much space it takes up in the attic. Guess we only need the storage over the garage.

Riding with Mom

Riding with “Mom”

We came back to a whirlwind.  On Friday, the “home stager” our realtor uses was scheduled to come and stage our house for showing. While Jon spent most of his time out at the property answer questions and coordinating work, I continued to furiously pack up clutter and pictures.  Friday afternoon and evening, Annelle rearranged our furniture, used our accessories to maximize viewing of the house, and left us with a long to-do list to finish preparing our house for showing. Friday night, Jon started his weekend DNOW duty for church, shuffling teenage boys around town and providing them a few meals. Saturday I helped out with registration and attended our Christian Writer’s Group of San Antonio workshop on Indy Publishing. We had some amazing speakers from published authors from the Houston area.

Sunday, we slowed down a little and took a bit of a Sabbath. I love our God who gives us a day to take naps and recharge for the coming week.

Update: My mom is home from the hospital again and is slowly recovering and regaining her strength. We would definitely appreciate prayers for her and my dad and sister.  They all need some rest and peace. It’s been long couple months for them.

We have our task list for the upcoming week, much of which will focus on putting our Schertz house up for sale. If you know of anyone looking for an affordable 3-4 bedroom house northeast of San Antonio (near Randolph AFB) in a great school district, send them our way.

Grace and Peace.

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Building Oak Haven – happening fast

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Jill English Johnston

 

chief-cornerstone

Ephesians 2:19-22

This past beautiful Sunday afternoon, our community group and Jon’s parents came over to eat pizza on the patio and to write verses on the studs of our house. We had a fabulous time but I missed the opportunity to get a group photo.

 

 

 

Then the week turned into a whirlwind. Which is good, because it means progress.

On Monday we picked up a stump grinder from Sunbelt Rentals and ground down a couple dozen stumps in the yard, specifically a couple that were where our garden shed would be built. We took a quick break in the afternoon to meet with Juan and receive our new task list. The the shed guy showed up Tuesday morning and started the floor and framing and Jon and I met with Jeremy from Click Integrations to discuss low voltage wiring (for televisions, speakers, etc). Right after Jeremy left, Craig from 84 Lumber showed up and we walked the house, verifying the dimensions of the doors. Jon decided to have the frames for the pocket doors installed along with the exterior doors. We’ll install the interior doors ourselves, once we paint/stain them. I’m still trying to decide between interior pine or solid core Masonite doors. I picked up our tub and shower fixtures on Wednesday and arranged for the guest tub to be delivered next week.

dried-in

windows in and roof covered

Jon and Juan met again to check all of the house studs for bowing and identify any other issues that needed to be addressed. 84 Lumber also delivered our windows and the roofers from Fry Roofing showed up. By the end of the day Chavez’s crew had the windows in place and sealed in, the roof was dried in, and the shed was finished.

 

 

Now it’s time to schedule the next round of activity and select our roof and stucco colors.

 

 

 

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Building Oak Haven – looking like a house

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Jill English Johnston

Its amazing how quickly the framers work. Last week we had a few walls, this week, we have what looks like a house. We’re able to walk around the inside, see the rooms and visualize what they will soon look like.

Taking shape

We’ve received a couple more loads  from 84 Lumber and the crew from Chavez Construction continue to create a house.

It’s amazing to watch our sketches-on-paper turn into reality.

 

 

View from my study window

 

I love the view from my study window, the corner where my desk will sit. May it provide much inspiration as I write what the Lord puts on my heart.

 

 

 

 

While the framers are hard at work, we are too. A home stager and photographer are scheduled for the end of the month and our house should go on the market early March. We’ve been busy packing boxes and hauling them to our storage unit. We’ll soon start putting some of our furniture in storage. Pieces that I love, but they make our current home look a bit crowded and need to be cleared out for showing.

We took samples of knotty alder and pine to Sherwin Williams and Casey, a sales associate, stained them in four different colors for us. The knotty alder (to be used for our cabinets and exterior doors) is beautiful in every color. We’re leaning toward the burnished walnut, which ties our various pieces of wood furniture together. The pine (to be used for our interior doors), however is a bit trickier. We’re not thrilled with how the stain colors look on it.  I’ve heard/read pine can be challenging to stain. I’m not sure if it’s the cut of wood we used (lower quality) or the colors we selected. Before we moved out of our house in MS, I stained a glass paneled door to replace the one leading to our sunroom and to match the double doors to our study. It turned out beautiful and I’m betting it was a pine door.  Maybe I knew too little to mess it up?  We’ll try a few more things and a few more colors. The other option is painted Masonite doors (in anything but white!) Maybe we can find a happy medium with the two choices.

Jon and I have spent a couple of nights at the camper this week, something quite familiar to us over the past eight years. It’s our home away from home. Wednesday night, we walked around Oak Haven by the light of the full moon.

Sunrise

The pale moon light spilling through the rafters gave the great room a magical feel. The next morning, we both had places to go, so we were up early and heading our separate ways. I paused for a moment to get a picture of the pre dawn glow.

 

 

 

We received an additionally blessing today. Mom was able to have her ventilator removed and is now breathing with the assistance of a cpap machine. Since she tends toward claustrophobia, this is a huge step for her. Please pray for her lungs to continue to gain strength in order to breathe on her own. God is good and we continue to look to Him in all things.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.
Lamentations 3:22-23

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