Goose Island State Park, sunrises

 The weekend before Christmas, my sister, niece, and I took a three night trip to Goose Island State Park on the western gulf coast of Texas. It is an area known for birding in the winter. We also wanted to go to the beach. It was cold, so we didn't do much hiking. We got to spend hours watching three sunrises and caught a few sunsets. I am doing three blog posts because I took a lot of photos and haven't yet edited them down to the best ones. I enjoyed the sunrises the best. I loved sitting on the bay cuddled in my jacket and watching the morning appear. There were a lot of waterfowl catching breakfast, mostly pelicans and sea gulls. There was a fleet of fishing boats in the bay every morning hunting for their lively hood. It seemed each boat had a circle they patrolled. The sunrise photos were the hardest to pick favorites of, so this post has a lot of similar photos. Enjoy.

Christmas Lights

 Livingston, Tx puts on a really nice light show starting right after Thanksgiving. I don't know when they turn them off yet. It is all free. You just need to drive around, or better yet, find a couple places to park and walk around. I really enjoyed my walk around town last night. And my drive and walk around Pedigo park. I have seen there is 5 acres of lights in Goodrich somewhere, but there is a charge for that. 

Bible Study on Hope

I decided this year to do a daily advent Bible Study. I have been enjoying reading a chapter a day, but wanted to do more study. I signed up for a daily email, but was disappointed in it. It has plenty of inspirational quotes but little of the Bible. It was encouraging people to choose to hope in people as well as God. I went to my dad's concordance and looked up the verses on hope which is the theme for the first week of advent. Following are the verses that spoke to me this week.

 Psalm 33:17, 18 We can't rely on the strength of things of the world. Our hope is in God.

Psalm 42:5 Even when we are sad, our hope is in God.

We can't rely on the strength of the world or things in the world. Our hope is on God. Even when we are sad we must put our hope in God.

Psalm 119:74, 130:5 Put your hope in God's word.

Psalm 130: Wait for God and He will redeem us.

Psalm 147:11 God delights in those who hope in Him.

Proverbs 23:18 There is a future in God.

Put your hope in God's word. Wait for Him and He will redeem us. He delights in those who hope in Him.

Issiah 40:31 God never grows weary and gives his strength to us.

Jer 29:11 God knows His plans for us.

Lam 3:21 God's mercies never fail.

Rom 5:4 Suffering leads to perseverance which leads to character which gives hope. Hope never disappoints us because it is based in God's love.

Rom 8:20 We were saved in hope

Rom 8:24 What we hope and wait for we do not see.

God never grows weary and understands all so He gives us his strength when we hope in Him. He knows his plans for us and his mercies will never fail. We are saved when we hope in God. We don't see what we hope for, but we wait for what we hope for -- the coming of Christ's kingdom and our adoption into his family.

Romans 15:4 Scriptures were written to give us hope

Romans 15:13 So let God's spirit fill you to overflowing with hope and joy

Eph 2:12 Christ's blood is what now gives us hope.

The Scripture was written to give us hope, but now Christ's blood is what gives us hope for eternal life with God. So let God's spirit fill you to overflowing with hope and joy.

1 Thess 1:3, 5:8 hope in Jesus, hope in salvation

1 Tim 4:10 set your hope on the living God who is the savior of all people

1 Tim 6:17 don't hope on riches, hope in God

Put all of your hope in Jesus

Titus 1:2 we hope for the coming of the Messiah as promised by the God who cannot lie.

Heb 6:19 hope anchors the soul and is given to us by God who cannot lie

Heb 10:23 hold fast to hope for God is faithful

1 John 3:3 we are now God's children but we don't know what we will become because we can't know or see everything.

We hope for the coming of the Messiah who was promised by the God who cannot lie. In that hope, we know we are God's children but we don't know what we will become because we don't know or see everything.