1 - NATURE
The eARTh and all of nature constantly proclaim the Hand of the Master Creator, who paints something new each day. Even if you were to sit in the same place in nature everyday, as Henry David Thoreau did at Walden Pond, you would discover something new everyday. Artists sometimes will paint the same thing over and over again for the same reason....because there is always something new to discover. If you sit in a forest very still and open your heart, you will hear God's voice speak. It is the Still Quiet Voice that is often lost to us in the hustle and bustle of daily routines. But a quiet place in nature can remind us of our connection to the Source. It is the same principle that Jesus Himself followed when he left the crowds and went up the mountain to meditate, pray, and re-charge spiritually. Nature, because it is God's Living Canvas, is our fast path not only to a closer connection with Him, but also to our own inner creativity, dreams, and gifts. And awareness of our interconnectedness with nature is also a key element as we cannot hear that Voice if we are not in harmony with the eARTh, a principle which most ancient people realized.
As part of eARTh NATURE, we will focus on the following key principles:
Connecting to God through NATURE and EARTH
- EARTH as God's living canvas
- NATURE as creative inspiration
- NATURE as a place of spiritual meditation
- Harmony with NATURE and EARTH producing good (health, peace, beauty)
A- Nature Verses
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His Hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." Psalm 19: 1-4
"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it" Psalm 24:1
"In His Hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind" Job 12:10
"He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. He bestows rain upon the earth; he sends water upon the countryside." Job 5:9-10
"Does the hawk take flight by Your wisdom and spread his wings toward the south? Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high?" Job 39: 26-27
"The earth, from which food comes, is transformed below as by fire; sapphires come from its rocks and its dust contains nuggets of gold....for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens." Job 28: 5-6, 24
"Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls" Psalm 42:7
"I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and cypress together." Isaiah 41:18-19
"The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness." Psalm 65:12
"Be still and know that I AM God" Psalm 46:10
"He giveth quietness" Job 34:29
"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God" Luke 6:12
"After having dismissed the multitude, He went into a mountain alone to pray. And when it was evening, he was there alone." Matt 14:23
"Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold her tightly." Proverbs 3:18
2 - Nature Quotes
"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness" John Muir
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he receives" John Muir
"The poetry of the earth is never dead." John Keats
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." Lao Tzu
"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?" Henry David Thoreau
"Nature is the art of God" Dante
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better". Albert Einstein
"Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand". Henry David Thoreau
"Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God." Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." George Washington Carver
"Bloom where you are planted". Unknown
3- Nature Wisdom
Julie Yamamoto collection of nature poetry
Quote:
"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars." - Martin Luther
"The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man". - Unknown