Safe Passage ...

“My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.”

   ~ Billy Graham

   ~ 1918-2018

 ~ American evangelist, prominent evangelical Christian figure, and ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well-known internationally in the late 1940s. One of his biographers has placed him “among the most influential Christian leaders” of the 20^th century.

I spotted this “Jesus 2024” sign in front of Friedens United Church of Christ, Slatington, Pennsylvania and had to stop to photograph this uplifting sight as a car sped by on Route 873 on a late May evening in this election year.

In these tumultuous times especially, it is a reminder that when all else is failing, Jesus is still there for us, and a powerful reminder of the hope that Jesus brings as we travel through this world.

 

Love One Another ...

“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”

    ~ John 15:12

    ~ The Holy Bible

    ~ King James Version

“Love One Another” is proclaimed on a banner in front of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Belvidere, New Jersey, on a beautiful mid-October afternoon.

A Delaware River Town, Belvidere, one of my very favorite places, was established April 7, 1845 and is a charming Victorian town located on the banks of the Pequest and Delaware Rivers. The town’s name means “beautiful to see” in Italian.

 

A Summer Peace On Leaser Lake ...

   “… This is my Father’s world,

And to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings

The music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world:

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees of skies and seas ~

His hand the wonders wrought …”     

     ~ “This is My Father’s World”

            ~Christian hymn written by Maltbie Davenport Babcock, a minister from                New York, & published posthumously in 1901

With Jacob’s Church standing tall on the hillside above, outdoorsmen set sail in a canoe, listening to nature sing on Leaser Lake, in the shadow of the northern Blue Mountain Ridge, New Tripoli, Pennsylvania. I shot this from the Leaser Lake Loop Trail on a beautiful and peaceful mid-July afternoon.

With a history dating back to 1761, Jacob’s Church describes itself as “The church on a hill, shining forth for Jesus Christ,” according to its website http://www.jacobschurch.org/.

The congregation erected outside spotlights to illuminate its beautiful “Blue Mountain Stone Tower” in 1989.

 Leaser Lake’s namesake is Frederick Leaser, an American patriot who in September 1777 with his farm team hauled The Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to Allentown where it was concealed in Zion Reformed Church for protection during the Revolutionary War. His homestead is located one mile north of the lake.

 Leaser Lake was built by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission for water-oriented recreation and opened for public use in 1971. Lehigh County leases this area from the state and operates and maintains the park. The land north of the lake was purchased by the county in the early 1970s. It is entirely wooded and is used for nature study and as an addition to the State Game Lands No. 217.