Exodus
Chapter 25

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.

3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,

4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair,

5 And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood,

6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,

7 Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.

8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

10 And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

11 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.

12 And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.

13 And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.

14 And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.

15 The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.

16 And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.

17 And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

18 And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.

19 And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

20 And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.

21 And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

23 Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

24 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about.

25 And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.

26 And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof.

27 Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.

28 And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them.

29 And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them.

30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.

31 And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.

32 And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:

33 Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick.

34 And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

35 And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.

36 Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold.

37 And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.

38 And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold.

39 Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels.

40 And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Spring has brought some beautiful blooms of flowers and trees to Virginia. The bees have been busy with their pollination activities, spreading grains of yellow pollen into the air. The rains and increasing temperatures are promoting more growth this April, and soon there will be lush gardens filled with more of the returning perennial plants and new annuals.

#Blooming #Flowers #Tulip #AppleBlossom #Bees #Spring2024 #Spring #Gardening #Botany #PlantBiology #Biology

A 17-year-old boy who works part-time at Pizza Hut drives up to park in front of the house in a beautiful Porsche.
Naturally, his parents know that there’s no way he earned enough with his after-school job to buy such a car.
“Where did you get that car?” his mom and dad screamed in shock.
“I bought it today,” replied the teen calmly.
“With what money young man?” his mom demands. “We know how much a Porsche costs and you cannot afford it!”
“Well, it’s used and I got a good deal” says the boy, “This one cost me 20 dollars.”
“Who on earth would sell a car like that for 20 dollars?!”
“The woman up the street,” the boy replies. “I don’t know her name–she just moved in.
She ordered a pizza and when I delivered it to her, she asked me if I wanted to buy a Porsche for 20 dollars.”
The boy’s dad and mom hurry over to their new neighbor’s house, ready to demand an explanation. Curiously, their new neighbor is calmly planting flowers in her front yard.
“I’m the father of the kid you just sold a sports car to for $20,” the dad says. “I need an explanation from you!”
“Well,” the woman says, not looking up from her garden. “This morning I got a phone call from my husband. I thought he was on a business trip in Florida, but it seems he has run off to Hawaii with his secretary and doesn’t intend to come back.”
“What on earth does that have to do with selling our son a Porsche for $20?” The boy’s mom asks, utterly perplexed.
The new neighbor smiles very big, and pauses for a minute. “Well, my husband asked me to sell his new Porsche and send him the money.
So I did.

She’s not a chapter or short story,
she’s a full length novel waiting to be unraveled.
She has layers of beauty that aren’t visible to the naked eye or casual bystander..
Her charm and wit will disarm you long before you ever discover her secrets or dare venture into the depths of her soul.
Untamed and unfettered, she has the heart of a wildfire and spirit of a warrior maiden.
She waits for the one who will see behind her soulful eyes and past her smirking smile,
She longs for the love that she has waited endless nights for- the one to stand apart from the others that she left behind.
She may not be your cup of tea, but she’ll most certainly be your shot of expresso.
Fiery and passionate, she’ll stoke your desires and engage your mind.
As she walks away leaving you breathless, you’ll realize exactly who what she is...
Perhaps too late.
She’s a wild spirit that cannot be tamed and force of nature that cannot be contained..
If you try to catch her eye or win her heart, prepare to invest your time as well as your love.
Engage her mind, call to her soul, love her heart- if you have any hopes of catching this beautiful butterfly.
She’s not a quick read or easy to understand..
Every page of her novel is unlike any other you’ve ever experienced..
Turn the pages slowly and take it all in, for you’re about to behold the most beautiful sight you’ll ever find:
The heart and soul of a woman.
But the deeper you read, the more you’ll fall in love:
She’s not a happily ever after,
she’s a wonder to behold,
The type of adventure that redefines the limits of your passion.
Forget the fairy tales, she’s a wildfire waiting to incinerate your heart.
It’s a fiery penance that you’ll enjoy..
every moment as she scorches your soul.
She is and always will be more than “just” a woman..
She’s the rarest of wildflowers..strong, wild and free.
Most of all, she’s utterly unforgettable in all the best ways.
|ravenwolf
My new book "Strong Woman Arisen":

Air pollution is changing the way flowers smell, leaving pollinators lost and the ecosystem in peril

NOT POLLUTION, BUT GEO ENGINEERED CHEM TRAILED COMPONENTS ADDED FOR THIS VERY REASON---KILL POLLINATION! WITH GENOCIDE AS IT'S END GOAL!

https://nypost.com/2024/02/09/lifestyle/air-pollution-is-altering-the-way-flowers-smell-confusing-insects/

The young woman who submitted the tech support message below (about her relationship with her husband) presumably did it as a joke. Then she got a reply that was way too good to keep to herself. The tech support people's love advice was hilarious.



The query:

Dear Tech Support,

"Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and House cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed: Desperate



The response (that came weeks later out of the blue)

Dear Desperate,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: I thought you loved me.html and try to download Tears 6.2. Do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the Tears application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta version.

Whatever you do, DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Mother-In-Law 1.0 as it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources. In addition, please do not attempt to re-install the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

Justin and Sophia

"I will not forget you.
you are in my waking thoughts,
my sweetest memories , my dearest dreams.
I will not forget you.
You have touched my soul , opened my eyes,
changed my very experience of the universe.
I will not forget you.
I see you in the flowers , the sunset , the sweep
of the horizon and all things that stretch to infinity.
I will not forget you.
I have carved you on the palm of my hand.
I carry you with me forever...”
~ Victoria Erickson
Art by Laron G. S. via Midjourney

In the decades and in the history books to come, 1968 will be remembered as the year the lights flickered out -- as a year of frustrations, regressions and shattered myths. These reversions to the past -- Prague, the Vatican, Chicago -- are the manifestations of political and economic forces seeking desperately to preserve situations of which they have long since lost control.

But the twilight descending upon the United States will have the gravest consequences of all, for it is America that sets the pace of the world, and often dictates its choices.

As the Sixties draw to a close, the peoples of the earth, left to themselves without gods and without leaders, are awaiting new decisions. The Man of November 5 cannot escape the confrontations before him. By refusing these choices, he will leave the problems unsolved.

Two Americans, John and Robert Kennedy, had the courage to meet these problems head on and break down the doors to the future. They were stopped by the frightened accomplices of the traditions on which they infringed.

When John Fitzgerald Kennedy's head exploded, it was for some the signal for toasts. One November morning the cannon boomed, the Panama Canal was closed, flags everywhere flew at half-mast, and it is said that even Andrei Gromyko wept. Adlai Stevenson declared that he would bear the sorrow of his death till the day of his own, and the Special Forces added a black band to their green berets.

Almost five years passed, and another bullet shattered the brain and stopped the heart of another Kennedy who had taken up the fight.

There was another funeral. Once again the Green Berets formed the Honor Guard; once again the Stars and Stripes flew at half-mast. One evening in June, Robert Kennedy joined his brother beneath the hill at Arlington, and those passing by can bring them flowers.

-James Hepburn (Pseudonym),
"Farewell America" (1968)