Hosea 4
The Lord Accuses Israel
1 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no knowledge of God in the land;
2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land mourns,
and all who dwell in it languish,
and also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens,
and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
4 Yet let no one contend,
and let none accuse,
for with you is my contention, O priest.t
5 You shall stumble by day;
the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
because you have rejected knowledge,
I reject you from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
7 The more they increased,
the more they sinned against me;
I will change their glory into shame.
8 They feed on the sint of my people;
they are greedy for their iniquity.
9 And it shall be like people, like priest;
I will punish them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
10 They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,
which take away the understanding.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Ease: The Sin of Sodom
I realized this morning as I was talking to my hubs about school that I value ease so highly that I am willing to sacrifice my children to the god of it. I am not the only one. I speak with people all the time who think it's a great idea for me to do just that. It really makes me angry when they present the idea to me, but when "I" present the idea to me I don't even notice. GRRR.
I read this scripture this week: "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Ezekiel 36:49 Now, let's think, what happened to HER? That describes America, that would describe ME if I took my own advice. I cannot take my own advice if my "want-tos" are giving it, it is stupid and will always get me out of grace.
There has been a lot of discussion this week about "our" views and who's allowed to even have views and if those views are viewed as hate. I'm sick of all the ridiculous mess that's being said. What does our view matter? It doesn't matter if it doesn't go along with God's. What has gotten us into this mess? EASE. Sounds simple doesn't it? If we look at history only the nations who are rich, prosperous, and prideful, filling their own bellies have been destroyed from within like we are being destroyed from within. We don't have to worry about foreign invaders, we are destroying ourselves and hating each other. I don't have to actually hate anyone to be accused of it, all I have to do is disagree with the idea being presented and all of a sudden the sensitive soul presenting the idea thinks I hate them. Hogwash. Just wait, guys! Listen to this: all those who want to rule America will have to do is wait patiently.
Does it have to be this way? No. What is the remedy? The opposite of the verse above...humility, sharing of all sorts, and work, working to give as Paul instructed the Ephesians, "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may GIVE TO HIM THAT NEEDETH." Eph. 4:28 (Emphasis mine!)
Humility: Coming to God on bended knee with a broken heart, admitting and confessing that HE is right and we are not. Repenting and being willing to bow to His authority everyday forever.
Sharing our fulness of bread: There are poor people everywhere you look, in America and all over the world. There are people who can't afford medical care, who can't put food on the table, who don't have water in their homes. Do we care?
Work: What is the goal of our work? Scriptures says that we are to be content with food and clothes. What about the rest? What is God's answer to that? Whew! Doggie!! Got some toes that time...that hurts. Study this in God's word, don't believe me--but don't believe YOU either, believe HIM.
God is the only wise god. Ease, and the worship of it, will cause nothing but ruin. If we would just follow what the word of God says, one person at a time, one home at a time, one church, one state at a time, then our nation could be healed...as we seek His face.
So, what about you? Are you willing to sacrifice at the altar of ease?
I read this scripture this week: "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Ezekiel 36:49 Now, let's think, what happened to HER? That describes America, that would describe ME if I took my own advice. I cannot take my own advice if my "want-tos" are giving it, it is stupid and will always get me out of grace.
There has been a lot of discussion this week about "our" views and who's allowed to even have views and if those views are viewed as hate. I'm sick of all the ridiculous mess that's being said. What does our view matter? It doesn't matter if it doesn't go along with God's. What has gotten us into this mess? EASE. Sounds simple doesn't it? If we look at history only the nations who are rich, prosperous, and prideful, filling their own bellies have been destroyed from within like we are being destroyed from within. We don't have to worry about foreign invaders, we are destroying ourselves and hating each other. I don't have to actually hate anyone to be accused of it, all I have to do is disagree with the idea being presented and all of a sudden the sensitive soul presenting the idea thinks I hate them. Hogwash. Just wait, guys! Listen to this: all those who want to rule America will have to do is wait patiently.
Does it have to be this way? No. What is the remedy? The opposite of the verse above...humility, sharing of all sorts, and work, working to give as Paul instructed the Ephesians, "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may GIVE TO HIM THAT NEEDETH." Eph. 4:28 (Emphasis mine!)
Humility: Coming to God on bended knee with a broken heart, admitting and confessing that HE is right and we are not. Repenting and being willing to bow to His authority everyday forever.
Sharing our fulness of bread: There are poor people everywhere you look, in America and all over the world. There are people who can't afford medical care, who can't put food on the table, who don't have water in their homes. Do we care?
Work: What is the goal of our work? Scriptures says that we are to be content with food and clothes. What about the rest? What is God's answer to that? Whew! Doggie!! Got some toes that time...that hurts. Study this in God's word, don't believe me--but don't believe YOU either, believe HIM.
God is the only wise god. Ease, and the worship of it, will cause nothing but ruin. If we would just follow what the word of God says, one person at a time, one home at a time, one church, one state at a time, then our nation could be healed...as we seek His face.
So, what about you? Are you willing to sacrifice at the altar of ease?
Friday, August 3, 2012
An Article from the Late Peter Marshall
From ladiesagainstfeminism.com
FEMINISM AND RELATED ISSUES
Keepers of the Springs
By Peter Marshall
May 29, 2003 - 9:09:00 PM
Once upon a time, a certain town grew up at the foot of a mountain range. It was sheltered in the lee of the protecting heights, so that the wind that shuddered at the doors and flung handfuls of sleet against the window panes was a wind whose fury was spent. High up in the hills, a strange and quiet forest dweller took it upon himself to be the Keeper of the Springs. He patrolled the hills and wherever he found a spring, he cleaned its brown pool of silt and fallen leaves, of mud and mold and took away from the spring all foreign matter, so that the water which bubbled up through the sand ran down clean and cold and pure. It leaped sparkling over rocks and dropped joyously in crystal cascades until, swollen by other streams, it became a river of life to the busy town. Millwheels were whirled by its rush. Gardens were refreshed by its waters. Fountains threw it like diamonds into the air. Swans sailed on its limpid surface, and children laughed as they played on its banks in the sunshine.
But the City Council was a group of hard-headed, hard-boiled businessmen. They scanned the civic budget and found in it the salary of a Keeper of the Springs. Said the Keeper of the Purse: "Why should we pay this romance ranger? We never see him; he is not necessary to our town's work life. If we build a reservoir just above the town, we can dispense with his services and save his salary." Therefore, the City Council voted to dispense with the unnecessary cost of a Keeper of the Springs, and to build a cement reservoir.
So the Keeper of the Springs no longer visited the brown pools but watched from the heights while they built the reservoir. When it was finished, it soon filled up with water, to be sure, but the water did not seem to be the same. It did not seem to be as clean, and a green scum soon befouled its stagnant surface. There were constant troubles with the delicate machinery of the mills, for it was often clogged with slime, and the swans found another home above the town. At last, an epidemic raged, and the clammy, yellow fingers of sickness reached into every home in every street and lane.
The City Council met again. Sorrowfully, it faced the city's plight, and frankly it acknowledged the mistake of the dismissal of the Keeper of the Springs. They sought him out of his hermit hut high in the hills, and begged him to return to his former joyous labor. Gladly he agreed, and began once more to make his rounds. It was not long until pure water came lilting down under tunnels of ferns and mosses and to sparkle in the cleansed reservoir. Millwheels turned again as of old. Stenches disappeared. Sickness waned and convalescent children playing in the sun laughed again because the swans had come back.
Do not think me fanciful, too imaginiative or too extravagant in my language when I say that I think of women, and particularly of our mothers, as Keepers of the Springs. The phrase, while poetic, is true and descriptive. We feel its warmth...its softening influence...and however forgetful we have been...however much we have taken for granted life's precious gifts, we are conscious of wistful memories that surge out of the past--the sweet, tender, poignant fragrances of love. Nothing that has been said, nothing that could be said, or that ever will be said, would be eloquent enough, expressive enough, or adequate to make articulate that peculiar emotion we feel to our mothers. So I shall make my tribute a plea for Keepers of the Springs, who will be faithful to their tasks.
There never has been a time when there was a greater need for Keepers of the Springs, or when there were more polluted springs to be cleansed. If the home fails, the country is doomed. The breakdown of homelife and influence will mark the breakdown of the nation. If the Keepers of the Springs desert their posts or are unfaithful to their responsibilities, the future outlook of this country is black, indeed. This generation needs Keepers of the Springs who will be courageous enough to cleanse the springs that have been polluted. It is not an easy task--nor is it a popular one, but it must be done for the sake of the children, and the young women of today must do it.
The emancipation of womanhood began with Christianity, and it ends with Christianity. It had its beginning one night nineteen hundred years ago when there came to a woman named Mary a vision and a message from heaven. She saw the rifted clouds of glory and the hidden battlements of heaven. She heard an angelic annunciation of the almost incredible news that she, of all the women on earth...of all the Marys in history...was to be the only one who should ever wear entwined the red rose of maternity and the white rose of virginity. It was told her--and all Keepers of the Springs know how such messages come--that she should be the mother of the Savior of the world.
It was nineteen hundred years ago "when Jesus Himself a baby deigned to be and bathed in baby tears His deity"...and on that night, when that tiny Child lay in the straw of Bethlehem, began the emancipation of womanhood.
When He grew up and began to teach the way of life, He ushered woman into a new place in human relations. He accorded her a new dignity and crowned her with a new glory, so that wherever the Christian evangel has gone for nineteen centuries, the daughters of Mary have been respected, revered, remembered, and loved, f or men have recognized that womanhood is a sacred and a noble thing, that women are of finer clay...are more in touch with the angels of God and have the noblest function that life affords. Wherever Christianity has spread, for nineteen hundred years men have bowed and adored.
It remained for the twentieth century, in the name of progress, in the name of tolerance, in the name of broadmindedness, in the name of freedom, to pull her down from her throne and try to make her like a man.
She wanted equality. For nineteen hundred years she had not been equal--she had been superior. But now, they said, she wanted equality, and in order to obtain it, she had to step down. And so it is, that in the name of broadminded tolerance, a man's vices have now become a woman's.
Twentieth-century tolerance has won for woman the right to become intoxicated, the right to have an alcoholic breath, the right to smoke, to work like a man to act like a man--for is she not man's equal? Today they call it "progress"...but tomorrow,oh, you Keepers of the Springs, they must be made to see that it is not progress.
No nation has ever made any progress in a downward direction. No people ever became great by lowering their standards. No people ever became good by adopting a looser morality. It is not progress when the moral tone is lower than it was. It is not progress when purity is not as sweet. It is not progress when womanhood has lost its fragrance. Whatever else it is, it is not progress!
We need Keepers of the Springs who will realize that what is socially correct may not be morally right. Our country needs today women who will lead us back to an old-fashioned morality, to an old fashioned decency, to an old fashioned purity and sweetness for the sake of the next generation, if for no other reason.
This generation has seen an entirely new type of womanhood emerge from the bewildering confusion of our time. We have in the United States today a higher standard of living than in any other country, or at any other time in the world's history. We have more automobiles, more picture shows, more telephones, more money, more swing bands, more radios, more television sets, more nightclubs, more crime, and more divorce than any other nation in the world. Modern mothers want their children to enjoy the advantages of this new day. They want them, if possible, to have a college diploma to hang on their bedroom wall, and what many of them regard as equally important--a bid to a fraternity or a sorority. They are desperately anxious that their daughters will be popular, although the price of this popularity may not be considered until it is too late. In short, they want their children to succeed, but the usual definition of success, in keeping with the trend of our day, is largely materialistic.
The result of all this is that the modern child is brought up in a decent, cultured, comfortable, but thoroughly irreligious home. All around us, living in the very shadow of our large churches and beautiful cathedrals, children are growing up without a particle of religious training or influence. The parents of such children have usually completely given up the search for religious moorings. At first, they probably had some sort of vague idealism as to what their children should be taught. They recall something of the religious instruction received when they were children, and they feel that something like that ought to be passed on to the children today, but they can't do it, because the simple truth is that they have nothing to give. Our modern broadmindedness has taken religious education out of the day schools. Our modern way of living and our modern irreligion have taken it out of the homes.
There remains only one place where it may be obtained, and that is in the Sunday School, but it is no longer fashionable to attend Sunday School. The result is that there is very little religious education, and parents who lack it themselves are not able to give it to their children--so it is a case of "the blind leading the blind," and both children and parents will almost invariably end up in the ditch of uncertainty and irreligion.
As you think of your own mother, remembering her with love and gratitude--in wishful yearning, or lonely longing, I am quite sure that the memories that warm and soften your heart are not at all like the memories the children of today will have... For you are, no doubt, remembering the smell of fresh starch in your mother's apron or the smell of a newly ironed blouse, the smell of newly baked bread, the fragrance of the violets she had pinned on her breast. It would be such a pity if all that one could remember would be the aroma of toasted tobacco or nicotine and the odor of beer on the breath!
The challenge of the twentieth-century motherhood is as old as motherhood itself. Although the average American mother has advantages that pioneer women never knew--material advantages: education, culture, advances made by science and medicine; although the modern mother knows a great deal more about sterilization, diets, health, calories, germs, drugs, medicines and vitamins, than her mother did, there is one subject about which she does not know as much--and that is God.
The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge--that of being a godly woman. The very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other kind of women--beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career woman, talented women, divorced women, but so seldom do we hear of a godly woman--or of a godly man either, for that matter.
I believe women come nearer fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realm of morals to be old-fashioned than to be ultramodern. The world has enough women who know how to hold their cocktails, who have lost all their illusions and their faith. The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct.
Let us not fool ourselves--without Christianity, without Christian education, without the principles of Christ inculcated into young life, we are simply rearing pagans. Physically, they will be perfect. Intellectually, they will be brilliant. But spiritually, they will be pagan. Let us not fool ourselves. The school is making no attempt to teach the principles of Christ. The Church alone cannot do it. They can never be taught to a child unless the mother herself knows them and practices them every day.
If you have no prayer life yourself, it is rather a useless gesture to make your child say his prayers every night. If you never enter a church it is rather futile to send your child to Sunday school. If you make a practice of telling social lies, it will be difficult to teach your child to be truthful. If you say cutting things about your neighbors and about fellow members in the church, it will be hard for your child to learn the meaning of kindness.
The twentieth-century challenge to motherhood--when it is all boiled down--is that mothers will have an experience of God...a reality which they can pass on to their children. For the newest of the sciences is beginning to realize, after a study of the teachings of Christ from the standpoint of psychology, that only as human beings discover and follow these inexorable spiritual laws will they find the happiness and contentment which we all seek.
A minister tells of going to a hospital to visit a mother whose first child had been born. She was a distinctly modern girl. Her home was about average for young married people. "When I came into the room she was propped up in bed writing. 'Come in,' she said, smiling. 'I'm in the midst of housecleaning, and I want your help.' I had never heard of a woman housecleaning while in a hospital bed. Her smile was contagious--she seemed to have found a new and jolly idea. "'I've had a wonderful chance to think here,' she began, 'and it may help me to get things straightened out in my mind if I can talk to you.' She put down her pencil and pad, and folded her hands. Then she took a long breath and started: 'Ever since I was a little girl, I hated any sort of restraint. I always wanted to be free. When I finished high school, I took a business course and got a job--not because I needed the money--but because I wanted to be on my own. Before Joe and I were married, we used to say that we would not be slaves to each other. And after we married, our apartment became headquarters for a crowd just like us. We weren't really bad--but we did just what we pleased.' She stopped for a minute and smiled ruefully. 'God didn't mean much to us--we ignored Him. None of us wanted children--or we thought we didn't. And when I knew I was going to have a baby, I was afraid.' She stopped again and looked puzzled. 'Isn't it funny, the things you used to think? She had almost forgotten I was there--she was speaking to the old girl she had been before her great adventure. Then remembering me suddenly--she went on: 'Where was I? Oh, yes, well, things are different now. I'm not free any more and I don't want to be. And the first thing I must do is to clean house.' Here she picked up the sheet of paper lying on the counterpane. 'That's my housecleaning list. You see, when I take Betty home from the hospital with me--our apartment will be her home--not just mine and Joe's. And it isn't fit for her now. Certain things will have to go--for Betty's sake. And I've got to houseclean my heart and mind. I'm not just myself--I'm Betty's mother. And that means I need God. I can't do my job without Him. Won't you pray for Betty and me and Joe, and for our new home?' And I saw in her all the mothers of today--mothers in tiny apartments and on lonely farms...Mothers in great houses and in suburban cottages, who are meeting the age-old challenge--' that of bringing up their children to the love and knowledge of God.' And I seemed to see our Savior--with His arms full of children of far-away Judea--saying to that mother and to all mothers--the old invitation so much needed in these times: 'Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.'"
I believe that this generation of young people has courage enough to face the challenging future. I believe that their idealism is not dead. I believe that they have the same bravery and the same devotion to the things worthwhile that their grandmothers had. I have every confidence that they are anxious to preserve the best of our heritage, and God knows if we lose it here in this country, it is forever gone. I believe that the women of today will not be unmindful of their responsibilities; that is why I have dared to speak so honestly. Keepers of the Springs, we salute you!
Our Father, remove from us the sophistication of our age and the skepticism that has come, like frost, to blight our faith and to make it weak. We pray for a return of that simple faith, that old fashioned trust in God, that made strong and great the homes of our ancestors who built this good land and who in building left us our heritage. In the strong name of Jesus, our Lord, we make this prayer, Amen.
Peter Marshall was the U.S. Senate Chaplain from 1946-48 during the presidency of Harry Truman, and died in 1949. He was born in Scotland and was known for his passionate preaching and deep conviction, as well as his picturesque speech.
© Copyright 2002-2009 by LAF/BeautifulWomanhood.org
FEMINISM AND RELATED ISSUES
Keepers of the Springs
By Peter Marshall
May 29, 2003 - 9:09:00 PM
Once upon a time, a certain town grew up at the foot of a mountain range. It was sheltered in the lee of the protecting heights, so that the wind that shuddered at the doors and flung handfuls of sleet against the window panes was a wind whose fury was spent. High up in the hills, a strange and quiet forest dweller took it upon himself to be the Keeper of the Springs. He patrolled the hills and wherever he found a spring, he cleaned its brown pool of silt and fallen leaves, of mud and mold and took away from the spring all foreign matter, so that the water which bubbled up through the sand ran down clean and cold and pure. It leaped sparkling over rocks and dropped joyously in crystal cascades until, swollen by other streams, it became a river of life to the busy town. Millwheels were whirled by its rush. Gardens were refreshed by its waters. Fountains threw it like diamonds into the air. Swans sailed on its limpid surface, and children laughed as they played on its banks in the sunshine.
But the City Council was a group of hard-headed, hard-boiled businessmen. They scanned the civic budget and found in it the salary of a Keeper of the Springs. Said the Keeper of the Purse: "Why should we pay this romance ranger? We never see him; he is not necessary to our town's work life. If we build a reservoir just above the town, we can dispense with his services and save his salary." Therefore, the City Council voted to dispense with the unnecessary cost of a Keeper of the Springs, and to build a cement reservoir.
So the Keeper of the Springs no longer visited the brown pools but watched from the heights while they built the reservoir. When it was finished, it soon filled up with water, to be sure, but the water did not seem to be the same. It did not seem to be as clean, and a green scum soon befouled its stagnant surface. There were constant troubles with the delicate machinery of the mills, for it was often clogged with slime, and the swans found another home above the town. At last, an epidemic raged, and the clammy, yellow fingers of sickness reached into every home in every street and lane.
The City Council met again. Sorrowfully, it faced the city's plight, and frankly it acknowledged the mistake of the dismissal of the Keeper of the Springs. They sought him out of his hermit hut high in the hills, and begged him to return to his former joyous labor. Gladly he agreed, and began once more to make his rounds. It was not long until pure water came lilting down under tunnels of ferns and mosses and to sparkle in the cleansed reservoir. Millwheels turned again as of old. Stenches disappeared. Sickness waned and convalescent children playing in the sun laughed again because the swans had come back.
Do not think me fanciful, too imaginiative or too extravagant in my language when I say that I think of women, and particularly of our mothers, as Keepers of the Springs. The phrase, while poetic, is true and descriptive. We feel its warmth...its softening influence...and however forgetful we have been...however much we have taken for granted life's precious gifts, we are conscious of wistful memories that surge out of the past--the sweet, tender, poignant fragrances of love. Nothing that has been said, nothing that could be said, or that ever will be said, would be eloquent enough, expressive enough, or adequate to make articulate that peculiar emotion we feel to our mothers. So I shall make my tribute a plea for Keepers of the Springs, who will be faithful to their tasks.
There never has been a time when there was a greater need for Keepers of the Springs, or when there were more polluted springs to be cleansed. If the home fails, the country is doomed. The breakdown of homelife and influence will mark the breakdown of the nation. If the Keepers of the Springs desert their posts or are unfaithful to their responsibilities, the future outlook of this country is black, indeed. This generation needs Keepers of the Springs who will be courageous enough to cleanse the springs that have been polluted. It is not an easy task--nor is it a popular one, but it must be done for the sake of the children, and the young women of today must do it.
The emancipation of womanhood began with Christianity, and it ends with Christianity. It had its beginning one night nineteen hundred years ago when there came to a woman named Mary a vision and a message from heaven. She saw the rifted clouds of glory and the hidden battlements of heaven. She heard an angelic annunciation of the almost incredible news that she, of all the women on earth...of all the Marys in history...was to be the only one who should ever wear entwined the red rose of maternity and the white rose of virginity. It was told her--and all Keepers of the Springs know how such messages come--that she should be the mother of the Savior of the world.
It was nineteen hundred years ago "when Jesus Himself a baby deigned to be and bathed in baby tears His deity"...and on that night, when that tiny Child lay in the straw of Bethlehem, began the emancipation of womanhood.
When He grew up and began to teach the way of life, He ushered woman into a new place in human relations. He accorded her a new dignity and crowned her with a new glory, so that wherever the Christian evangel has gone for nineteen centuries, the daughters of Mary have been respected, revered, remembered, and loved, f or men have recognized that womanhood is a sacred and a noble thing, that women are of finer clay...are more in touch with the angels of God and have the noblest function that life affords. Wherever Christianity has spread, for nineteen hundred years men have bowed and adored.
It remained for the twentieth century, in the name of progress, in the name of tolerance, in the name of broadmindedness, in the name of freedom, to pull her down from her throne and try to make her like a man.
She wanted equality. For nineteen hundred years she had not been equal--she had been superior. But now, they said, she wanted equality, and in order to obtain it, she had to step down. And so it is, that in the name of broadminded tolerance, a man's vices have now become a woman's.
Twentieth-century tolerance has won for woman the right to become intoxicated, the right to have an alcoholic breath, the right to smoke, to work like a man to act like a man--for is she not man's equal? Today they call it "progress"...but tomorrow,oh, you Keepers of the Springs, they must be made to see that it is not progress.
No nation has ever made any progress in a downward direction. No people ever became great by lowering their standards. No people ever became good by adopting a looser morality. It is not progress when the moral tone is lower than it was. It is not progress when purity is not as sweet. It is not progress when womanhood has lost its fragrance. Whatever else it is, it is not progress!
We need Keepers of the Springs who will realize that what is socially correct may not be morally right. Our country needs today women who will lead us back to an old-fashioned morality, to an old fashioned decency, to an old fashioned purity and sweetness for the sake of the next generation, if for no other reason.
This generation has seen an entirely new type of womanhood emerge from the bewildering confusion of our time. We have in the United States today a higher standard of living than in any other country, or at any other time in the world's history. We have more automobiles, more picture shows, more telephones, more money, more swing bands, more radios, more television sets, more nightclubs, more crime, and more divorce than any other nation in the world. Modern mothers want their children to enjoy the advantages of this new day. They want them, if possible, to have a college diploma to hang on their bedroom wall, and what many of them regard as equally important--a bid to a fraternity or a sorority. They are desperately anxious that their daughters will be popular, although the price of this popularity may not be considered until it is too late. In short, they want their children to succeed, but the usual definition of success, in keeping with the trend of our day, is largely materialistic.
The result of all this is that the modern child is brought up in a decent, cultured, comfortable, but thoroughly irreligious home. All around us, living in the very shadow of our large churches and beautiful cathedrals, children are growing up without a particle of religious training or influence. The parents of such children have usually completely given up the search for religious moorings. At first, they probably had some sort of vague idealism as to what their children should be taught. They recall something of the religious instruction received when they were children, and they feel that something like that ought to be passed on to the children today, but they can't do it, because the simple truth is that they have nothing to give. Our modern broadmindedness has taken religious education out of the day schools. Our modern way of living and our modern irreligion have taken it out of the homes.
There remains only one place where it may be obtained, and that is in the Sunday School, but it is no longer fashionable to attend Sunday School. The result is that there is very little religious education, and parents who lack it themselves are not able to give it to their children--so it is a case of "the blind leading the blind," and both children and parents will almost invariably end up in the ditch of uncertainty and irreligion.
As you think of your own mother, remembering her with love and gratitude--in wishful yearning, or lonely longing, I am quite sure that the memories that warm and soften your heart are not at all like the memories the children of today will have... For you are, no doubt, remembering the smell of fresh starch in your mother's apron or the smell of a newly ironed blouse, the smell of newly baked bread, the fragrance of the violets she had pinned on her breast. It would be such a pity if all that one could remember would be the aroma of toasted tobacco or nicotine and the odor of beer on the breath!
The challenge of the twentieth-century motherhood is as old as motherhood itself. Although the average American mother has advantages that pioneer women never knew--material advantages: education, culture, advances made by science and medicine; although the modern mother knows a great deal more about sterilization, diets, health, calories, germs, drugs, medicines and vitamins, than her mother did, there is one subject about which she does not know as much--and that is God.
The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge--that of being a godly woman. The very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other kind of women--beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career woman, talented women, divorced women, but so seldom do we hear of a godly woman--or of a godly man either, for that matter.
I believe women come nearer fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realm of morals to be old-fashioned than to be ultramodern. The world has enough women who know how to hold their cocktails, who have lost all their illusions and their faith. The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct.
Let us not fool ourselves--without Christianity, without Christian education, without the principles of Christ inculcated into young life, we are simply rearing pagans. Physically, they will be perfect. Intellectually, they will be brilliant. But spiritually, they will be pagan. Let us not fool ourselves. The school is making no attempt to teach the principles of Christ. The Church alone cannot do it. They can never be taught to a child unless the mother herself knows them and practices them every day.
If you have no prayer life yourself, it is rather a useless gesture to make your child say his prayers every night. If you never enter a church it is rather futile to send your child to Sunday school. If you make a practice of telling social lies, it will be difficult to teach your child to be truthful. If you say cutting things about your neighbors and about fellow members in the church, it will be hard for your child to learn the meaning of kindness.
The twentieth-century challenge to motherhood--when it is all boiled down--is that mothers will have an experience of God...a reality which they can pass on to their children. For the newest of the sciences is beginning to realize, after a study of the teachings of Christ from the standpoint of psychology, that only as human beings discover and follow these inexorable spiritual laws will they find the happiness and contentment which we all seek.
A minister tells of going to a hospital to visit a mother whose first child had been born. She was a distinctly modern girl. Her home was about average for young married people. "When I came into the room she was propped up in bed writing. 'Come in,' she said, smiling. 'I'm in the midst of housecleaning, and I want your help.' I had never heard of a woman housecleaning while in a hospital bed. Her smile was contagious--she seemed to have found a new and jolly idea. "'I've had a wonderful chance to think here,' she began, 'and it may help me to get things straightened out in my mind if I can talk to you.' She put down her pencil and pad, and folded her hands. Then she took a long breath and started: 'Ever since I was a little girl, I hated any sort of restraint. I always wanted to be free. When I finished high school, I took a business course and got a job--not because I needed the money--but because I wanted to be on my own. Before Joe and I were married, we used to say that we would not be slaves to each other. And after we married, our apartment became headquarters for a crowd just like us. We weren't really bad--but we did just what we pleased.' She stopped for a minute and smiled ruefully. 'God didn't mean much to us--we ignored Him. None of us wanted children--or we thought we didn't. And when I knew I was going to have a baby, I was afraid.' She stopped again and looked puzzled. 'Isn't it funny, the things you used to think? She had almost forgotten I was there--she was speaking to the old girl she had been before her great adventure. Then remembering me suddenly--she went on: 'Where was I? Oh, yes, well, things are different now. I'm not free any more and I don't want to be. And the first thing I must do is to clean house.' Here she picked up the sheet of paper lying on the counterpane. 'That's my housecleaning list. You see, when I take Betty home from the hospital with me--our apartment will be her home--not just mine and Joe's. And it isn't fit for her now. Certain things will have to go--for Betty's sake. And I've got to houseclean my heart and mind. I'm not just myself--I'm Betty's mother. And that means I need God. I can't do my job without Him. Won't you pray for Betty and me and Joe, and for our new home?' And I saw in her all the mothers of today--mothers in tiny apartments and on lonely farms...Mothers in great houses and in suburban cottages, who are meeting the age-old challenge--' that of bringing up their children to the love and knowledge of God.' And I seemed to see our Savior--with His arms full of children of far-away Judea--saying to that mother and to all mothers--the old invitation so much needed in these times: 'Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.'"
I believe that this generation of young people has courage enough to face the challenging future. I believe that their idealism is not dead. I believe that they have the same bravery and the same devotion to the things worthwhile that their grandmothers had. I have every confidence that they are anxious to preserve the best of our heritage, and God knows if we lose it here in this country, it is forever gone. I believe that the women of today will not be unmindful of their responsibilities; that is why I have dared to speak so honestly. Keepers of the Springs, we salute you!
Our Father, remove from us the sophistication of our age and the skepticism that has come, like frost, to blight our faith and to make it weak. We pray for a return of that simple faith, that old fashioned trust in God, that made strong and great the homes of our ancestors who built this good land and who in building left us our heritage. In the strong name of Jesus, our Lord, we make this prayer, Amen.
Peter Marshall was the U.S. Senate Chaplain from 1946-48 during the presidency of Harry Truman, and died in 1949. He was born in Scotland and was known for his passionate preaching and deep conviction, as well as his picturesque speech.
© Copyright 2002-2009 by LAF/BeautifulWomanhood.org
Monday, July 30, 2012
Lame? Me? Nah.
I was talking to one of my special Peeps this morning. She hasn't been saved long, and she is excited and zealous for the Lord. :) She told me about a friend who asked her, "When did you get to be so LAME?" I had to laugh and I laughed long and loud. I thought that was so funny.
Well, I got to thinking about this and realized: 1.) I don't care at all if people think I'm lame. 2.) I am not lame, they are!
What is lame? 1. crippled or physically disabled, especially in the foot or leg so as to limp or walk with difficulty.
2. impaired or disabled through defect or injury: a lame arm.
3. weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy: a lame excuse.
4. Slang . out of touch with modern fads or trends; unsophisticated.
UrbanDictionary.com's definition: just plain stupid, un-original, or lifeless
You know, I might be out of touch with trends, but I am not lame. I am healed of my disability. I am no longer inadequate, because God sees Christ when He looks at me. I am not "just plain stupid", but I was the "foolish thing" that God chose. I might be un-original, but who CARES about that? But I'm NOT lifeless. I finally have life and life and abundant!!!
I am not LAME and neither are my dear friend.
Well, I got to thinking about this and realized: 1.) I don't care at all if people think I'm lame. 2.) I am not lame, they are!
What is lame? 1. crippled or physically disabled, especially in the foot or leg so as to limp or walk with difficulty.
2. impaired or disabled through defect or injury: a lame arm.
3. weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy: a lame excuse.
4. Slang . out of touch with modern fads or trends; unsophisticated.
UrbanDictionary.com's definition: just plain stupid, un-original, or lifeless
You know, I might be out of touch with trends, but I am not lame. I am healed of my disability. I am no longer inadequate, because God sees Christ when He looks at me. I am not "just plain stupid", but I was the "foolish thing" that God chose. I might be un-original, but who CARES about that? But I'm NOT lifeless. I finally have life and life and abundant!!!
I am not LAME and neither are my dear friend.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Modesty, Revisited
Hello Friends. My clothes are becoming worn. I have lost a skirt. And I have a reputation for being a walking "work of art" that I NEED to maintain. (IF you know me, you know that that is SUCH a joke.) That said, it is time to go shopping...somewhere inexpensive...and buy some things for Me. I HATE to shop. I HATE to buy things for me. I always shop the clearance stuff and try to get things for $10 or less. Yes. I know. I'm a "spendthrift". Anyway, if I have to buy new clothes it causes me to reflect on the motivation behind the purchases and how I will be perceived in certain types of clothing. It's important.
I hate to be put in a box, I'd much rather stand on one and rant. I do not mind at all when people think they can look at me and make a judgment based on my clothes, I think that's normal. What I do mind is for someone to look at me and think they can judge my character or lack thereof based on some preconceived notion they have about "people like me".
I was watching "America's Got Talent" recently and there was a young man on there who had dyed black hair, black makeup around his eyes...just the whole goth look. He sang beautifully and he sang a piece from opera that I should know, but don't. He made me cry because he has been so hurt in his life. He is a depressed and broken young man and I just wanted to love on him. He feared rejection so much that he finally began to dress in such a way that he would BE rejected by most people. :(
Our clothes say so much. They are a way to express our inmost selves and show people that which is important to us. We wear cute sayings that reflect our sense of humor. We advertise for first one thing and then another (sometimes without even realizing it). We wear things that we know other people will like because we want to be liked and accepted by other people. We wear things that flatter our figures (as if that were possible!). How do we NEED to be dressing though? If we are the Lord's then we are to submit our closet to Him. If that means starting over, then save your pennies and ask the Lord to help you replenish it from His bounty (ie. hand-me-downs, Goodwill,clothes swaps, garage sales, etc.).
The Lord has not been silent on the issue of clothing. In times of judgment the Lord took away the beautiful things and revealed the shame of His people, comparing it to a woman and her "bling". He has directed us to be modest and chaste. What does that mean? I think the definition is different for everyone but not so different that anyone should be offended by what we wear.
With that explained, I must confess that many times I tend to want to make a purchase based on the cuteness factor of the article of clothing rather than the PLEASING factor. Would this please the Lord? My hubs? My kids? (They get embarassed, ya know?) Would I be a distraction at church, at the store, as I walk across the street?
You might be thinking, "Well, I'm fat and I'm going to wear what is comfortable!". Guess what? I'm fat and I want to wear what's comfortable, too, but if it wouldn't please the Lord then I don't wear it. If you were going to meet with Him at a restaurant what would you wear? Would you wear THAT? No. Not if you love Him and respect Him. We can be sensual and immodest when we are overweight just as easily as when we are thin, it just isn't as appealing to other people. It does give them some amusement tho.
So, instead of making purchases based soley on the cuteness factor I must consider these things:
1. Would I wear it to meet the Lord or would I not want Him catching me in it?
2. Am I choosing this because it makes me look good or because it fits so that I look stylish and modest and practical?
3. Is this so expensive that I could feed a whole third world country for a day?
4. Is it me? Does it reflect my personality, at the same time show others that I am concerned about modesty?
I am not, and will not, make up a bunch of rules about clothing...for myself, my girls or you. That's not my place. I just wanted to share some of the reasons why I make the choices that I make. I wanted to encourage others to think through these things and realize how important the decisions are. We must protect our brothers and sisters in Christ from our sinful thinking. We must remember that we are not to cause our brothers to stumble by how we dress. You don't care about that? Well, stop reading right now and repent of your blatant sin. If you don't love your brother enough to make a different choice about the length of your britches/skirt or the neckline of your top then you have bigger problems than the length of your britches! (I'm a grandmother now, I can say that outloud.)
Let's all get mirrors and look in them objectively (from another person's perspective). Let's ask ourselves:
1. If someone sees me in the this from behind, will they lust? Does it show the world where the split God gave me really is? (sorry.)
2. What if I raise my arms, does my belly show?
3. What about sitting down or bending over? Am I showing hiney or cleavage?
4. Most importantly as I prepare to shop, will someone know just by looking at me that I value modesty and my relationship with the LORD?
We don't have to be frumpy. I know I am. I just like to be comfortable and when you are wrestling kids, comfort is nice. We can dress like Queens or peasants, the most important thing is, would your Bridegroom, who has given ALL to have you washed and spotless, appreciate what you are wearing?
Just some thoughts I was thinking because it's time to think 'em. I hope that you can be edified by my thoughts and encouraged as well.
Again, God bless!
I hate to be put in a box, I'd much rather stand on one and rant. I do not mind at all when people think they can look at me and make a judgment based on my clothes, I think that's normal. What I do mind is for someone to look at me and think they can judge my character or lack thereof based on some preconceived notion they have about "people like me".
I was watching "America's Got Talent" recently and there was a young man on there who had dyed black hair, black makeup around his eyes...just the whole goth look. He sang beautifully and he sang a piece from opera that I should know, but don't. He made me cry because he has been so hurt in his life. He is a depressed and broken young man and I just wanted to love on him. He feared rejection so much that he finally began to dress in such a way that he would BE rejected by most people. :(
Our clothes say so much. They are a way to express our inmost selves and show people that which is important to us. We wear cute sayings that reflect our sense of humor. We advertise for first one thing and then another (sometimes without even realizing it). We wear things that we know other people will like because we want to be liked and accepted by other people. We wear things that flatter our figures (as if that were possible!). How do we NEED to be dressing though? If we are the Lord's then we are to submit our closet to Him. If that means starting over, then save your pennies and ask the Lord to help you replenish it from His bounty (ie. hand-me-downs, Goodwill,clothes swaps, garage sales, etc.).
The Lord has not been silent on the issue of clothing. In times of judgment the Lord took away the beautiful things and revealed the shame of His people, comparing it to a woman and her "bling". He has directed us to be modest and chaste. What does that mean? I think the definition is different for everyone but not so different that anyone should be offended by what we wear.
With that explained, I must confess that many times I tend to want to make a purchase based on the cuteness factor of the article of clothing rather than the PLEASING factor. Would this please the Lord? My hubs? My kids? (They get embarassed, ya know?) Would I be a distraction at church, at the store, as I walk across the street?
You might be thinking, "Well, I'm fat and I'm going to wear what is comfortable!". Guess what? I'm fat and I want to wear what's comfortable, too, but if it wouldn't please the Lord then I don't wear it. If you were going to meet with Him at a restaurant what would you wear? Would you wear THAT? No. Not if you love Him and respect Him. We can be sensual and immodest when we are overweight just as easily as when we are thin, it just isn't as appealing to other people. It does give them some amusement tho.
So, instead of making purchases based soley on the cuteness factor I must consider these things:
1. Would I wear it to meet the Lord or would I not want Him catching me in it?
2. Am I choosing this because it makes me look good or because it fits so that I look stylish and modest and practical?
3. Is this so expensive that I could feed a whole third world country for a day?
4. Is it me? Does it reflect my personality, at the same time show others that I am concerned about modesty?
I am not, and will not, make up a bunch of rules about clothing...for myself, my girls or you. That's not my place. I just wanted to share some of the reasons why I make the choices that I make. I wanted to encourage others to think through these things and realize how important the decisions are. We must protect our brothers and sisters in Christ from our sinful thinking. We must remember that we are not to cause our brothers to stumble by how we dress. You don't care about that? Well, stop reading right now and repent of your blatant sin. If you don't love your brother enough to make a different choice about the length of your britches/skirt or the neckline of your top then you have bigger problems than the length of your britches! (I'm a grandmother now, I can say that outloud.)
Let's all get mirrors and look in them objectively (from another person's perspective). Let's ask ourselves:
1. If someone sees me in the this from behind, will they lust? Does it show the world where the split God gave me really is? (sorry.)
2. What if I raise my arms, does my belly show?
3. What about sitting down or bending over? Am I showing hiney or cleavage?
4. Most importantly as I prepare to shop, will someone know just by looking at me that I value modesty and my relationship with the LORD?
We don't have to be frumpy. I know I am. I just like to be comfortable and when you are wrestling kids, comfort is nice. We can dress like Queens or peasants, the most important thing is, would your Bridegroom, who has given ALL to have you washed and spotless, appreciate what you are wearing?
Just some thoughts I was thinking because it's time to think 'em. I hope that you can be edified by my thoughts and encouraged as well.
Again, God bless!
For Amy...
One of my new young friends (by young I mean young enough to be my child!) just found out that if she doesn't change she will have diabetes and heart problems VERY soon. This was sad, sad news for me as I know very well the cruelties of diabetes. I have lost friends and family to it and have many in my close circle who struggle with it daily.
I knew that this was serious news and I hate to see her fall prey to some disease if she can do ANYthing to keep from it. I told her to go to my blog and learn about my own journey with weight issues. Today I went to my blog to find that journey and apparently it's not here, never been written? I don't know. Honestly, I thought I wrote about it but I can't find it, so here I go again.
I'm 5'3" and at age 26 I was the mother to a four year old, a two year old, and a 6 month old and I weighed in at 172 pounds. I was MISERABLE. I was a church member and working in different areas there and trying to keep up with a house, land, these kids, pets and a husband. I was perpetually tired and I used food to comfort ME, because I deserved it!!! I paid myself for being a "good" mom and wife by eating ice cream or cereal or ice cream with cereal on top at night after the kids were in bed. I also paid myself for the torture of a shopping trip with so many littles by buying all of us a candy bar at the check-out, they were only .44 a piece. :/
By the time my youngest was 6 months I thought surely I'd lose my mind. I had being doing okay but things were catching up with me. My lack of exercise coupled with my obesity was causing me to drag, but I was also nursing and up most nights and then up all day. Exhaustion can have devastating effects.
I read of a book in my Crossings Book Club stuff and ordered it. (I am not going to endorse the book.) I read that book and in it the author talked about how the Lord Jesus LOVES us in a way that I never had thought about Him loving me before. I wanted this love and this "Man" to rule my life and I asked Him to do just that as I knelt by my little Bug's bed. An old Ronnie Milsap song comes to mind, "Oh, what a difference [He] made in my life!!" Nah. Scratch that, it's too much of an understatement. He gave me new life and I got up from there a different person. The Lord used food to get my attention. He used my abuse of a good gift to show me the True and Perfect Gift.
From that time until I got the little girls in 2010 I had been pretty active in trying to encourage women in their "dieting" struggles because I have my own. After I was saved that day I cared very little for food for quite a while. I lost down to 125 and could wear 4s and 6s modestly. However, sin crept in little by little and stole my joy in the Lord and I started using food as comfort again. ARGH! I still do that.
I have studied food and the affect that it has on our bodies, I know all the trash that I want to know about the "whites", the artificials, the empty negative foods but none of that matters on some days. Some days I just WANT sour cream and onion potato chips and only Lay's will do. :) And you KNOW, you can't eat just one.
For 15 years now I have struggled to be obedient to what my body is telling me in this area and more importantly to remember: "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God's." (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
I am not my own. My body and my spirit belong to God. Everything I am belongs to God. He has been very gracious to give me food and I have abused His gift. It is necessary for me to change my ways. I told Amy that I would eat as she has to eat, although with no artificial sweeteners. Now I have told my blogging world (which is actually rather small...) that I am trusting the Lord to help me eat right. I need help because I KNOW THAT I CANNOT DO IT. I KNOW that mere human help is not enough, only our Supernatural Creator can help me...I'm an almost hopeless case.
The steps that I will take are: prayer and crying out to the Lord, and reading and meditating on these and other scriptures that He shows me:
1 Cor. 9:25a
Proverbs 26:14
1 Cor. 6:13-20
Proverbs 23:1-3
Daniel 1
Hosea 4:6a
John 4:32b
John 6:27a
1 Cor. 10:31
Proverbs 27:2 (seem like it doesn't fit? It does. Don't get haughty.)
Psalm 63:1
Gal. 5:22-24 (temperance--don't say SELF control)
Col. 3:17
Romans 12:1-2;13:14
James 4:7, 17
1 John 2:3
Gal. 2:20; 5:16
This is by no means an exhaustive list, these are just some of the scriptures He has shown me over the last 15 years.
May the Lord bless all who seek to obey and follow Him. Let us NOT make our bellies our god.
Blessings!
I knew that this was serious news and I hate to see her fall prey to some disease if she can do ANYthing to keep from it. I told her to go to my blog and learn about my own journey with weight issues. Today I went to my blog to find that journey and apparently it's not here, never been written? I don't know. Honestly, I thought I wrote about it but I can't find it, so here I go again.
I'm 5'3" and at age 26 I was the mother to a four year old, a two year old, and a 6 month old and I weighed in at 172 pounds. I was MISERABLE. I was a church member and working in different areas there and trying to keep up with a house, land, these kids, pets and a husband. I was perpetually tired and I used food to comfort ME, because I deserved it!!! I paid myself for being a "good" mom and wife by eating ice cream or cereal or ice cream with cereal on top at night after the kids were in bed. I also paid myself for the torture of a shopping trip with so many littles by buying all of us a candy bar at the check-out, they were only .44 a piece. :/
By the time my youngest was 6 months I thought surely I'd lose my mind. I had being doing okay but things were catching up with me. My lack of exercise coupled with my obesity was causing me to drag, but I was also nursing and up most nights and then up all day. Exhaustion can have devastating effects.
I read of a book in my Crossings Book Club stuff and ordered it. (I am not going to endorse the book.) I read that book and in it the author talked about how the Lord Jesus LOVES us in a way that I never had thought about Him loving me before. I wanted this love and this "Man" to rule my life and I asked Him to do just that as I knelt by my little Bug's bed. An old Ronnie Milsap song comes to mind, "Oh, what a difference [He] made in my life!!" Nah. Scratch that, it's too much of an understatement. He gave me new life and I got up from there a different person. The Lord used food to get my attention. He used my abuse of a good gift to show me the True and Perfect Gift.
From that time until I got the little girls in 2010 I had been pretty active in trying to encourage women in their "dieting" struggles because I have my own. After I was saved that day I cared very little for food for quite a while. I lost down to 125 and could wear 4s and 6s modestly. However, sin crept in little by little and stole my joy in the Lord and I started using food as comfort again. ARGH! I still do that.
I have studied food and the affect that it has on our bodies, I know all the trash that I want to know about the "whites", the artificials, the empty negative foods but none of that matters on some days. Some days I just WANT sour cream and onion potato chips and only Lay's will do. :) And you KNOW, you can't eat just one.
For 15 years now I have struggled to be obedient to what my body is telling me in this area and more importantly to remember: "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God's." (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
I am not my own. My body and my spirit belong to God. Everything I am belongs to God. He has been very gracious to give me food and I have abused His gift. It is necessary for me to change my ways. I told Amy that I would eat as she has to eat, although with no artificial sweeteners. Now I have told my blogging world (which is actually rather small...) that I am trusting the Lord to help me eat right. I need help because I KNOW THAT I CANNOT DO IT. I KNOW that mere human help is not enough, only our Supernatural Creator can help me...I'm an almost hopeless case.
The steps that I will take are: prayer and crying out to the Lord, and reading and meditating on these and other scriptures that He shows me:
1 Cor. 9:25a
Proverbs 26:14
1 Cor. 6:13-20
Proverbs 23:1-3
Daniel 1
Hosea 4:6a
John 4:32b
John 6:27a
1 Cor. 10:31
Proverbs 27:2 (seem like it doesn't fit? It does. Don't get haughty.)
Psalm 63:1
Gal. 5:22-24 (temperance--don't say SELF control)
Col. 3:17
Romans 12:1-2;13:14
James 4:7, 17
1 John 2:3
Gal. 2:20; 5:16
This is by no means an exhaustive list, these are just some of the scriptures He has shown me over the last 15 years.
May the Lord bless all who seek to obey and follow Him. Let us NOT make our bellies our god.
Blessings!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The BEST EVER Benefit of my Bread
I've been making whole wheat bread for my family and others for I guess over ten years now. There are a lot of benefits to eating the bread we make; there's loads of nutrition and yummy goodness. We are able to make some money selling to friends and able to bless people during times of stress...with a little loaf of bread. We love our bread and others do too, but that's not the best thing...
The VERY BEST BENEFIT of my bread is the dear friend I was given because of it.
Over ten years ago we moved to our present location. We gained a few friends the summer we spent working on the place and discovered that our neighbors are the best in the world, but a couple months after we moved in we were given a VERY special gift: the Fergusons.
There are times in your life when you just KNOW that God has smiled on you and this was one of those times. :o)
One of the ladies I had met the summer before told me about this family that had visited her church and there were SIX sweet kids and the kids actually seemed to like each other (hehehe--sad that that should be a noticable issue). We were having a puppet team come to our church so I decided, with the encouragement of my summer friend, that I should invite this woman and her sweet kids. So, I stepped WAY out of my comfort zone and called her. She has told me many times the shock and joy she experienced at just getting a phone call. She had just moved here from her family's home in Ohio and was living in rather undesirable circumstances while they built their new house. She had yet to make a friend, and YES, she would come!
The night of the performance an unfamiliar lady walked in with a 9-10 year old boy and although we had MANY visitors, I just knew it was her. So again, I stepped out of my comfort zone and walked over and spoke. It WAS her, (and I was SO thankful-phobias are a bad thing!)she was very pleasant, though obviously as uncomfortable as I was with the situation. We chatted a bit...her other kids were sick... thank you for inviting us...I'm glad you canme...enjoyed the presentation...bye! Oh, well.
So, I'm talking with my summer friend again a couple of months later and after telling her that I wanted to learn to make bread she tells me, "Hey! You should call Mrs. Gail (the lady with all the sweet kids). She makes homemade bread and it is SO good!!!" Really? Okay. I was glad to have an opportunity to speak with this pleasant little lady again, so I called. We had the nicest visit and she volunteered to come to my house and teach me to bake bread, and also sell me wheat if I was interested. YES! I'm going to learn to make bread for my family!!!!! I LOVE BREAD, my family loves bread...I am a rock star!!!!
Mrs. Gail came to my house that day, she taught me to make bread and she visited with my family...and we fell in love. "Miss Gail" and her family have been some of our most precious friends since that season. They helped us through the most difficult time of our life and fed us pancakes as we hid from reality. We helped them as they worked on their house and prayed for them as both Stu's (the bread lady's husband) parents died within months of each other after long illnesses. We have loved their sweet kids and cleaned up after them when they were sick, they have loved our kids and borrowed them on many occasions. We have eaten together, swam together, cried together, laughed together, vacationed together, and worked on many projects together. Their sons have been some of our son's most trusted playmates, their baby daughter is our baby daughter's very BEST, bestie...and their oldest son is our oldest daughter's number one husband. Their very first grandbaby is our very first grandbaby and we love them all.
They are moving to North Dakota for (hopefully) a short stay and they will be sorely missed. For a while there will be no more counseling sessions on the picnic table as we overlook the lake, no more quick runs over here for a visit...just for a while. I am sad, more sad than my voice can squeak out. I will miss this woman, one of my BESTIES...but I know that God has a plan for this pain and He will always do what's best for those who belong to Him, even when it hurts REAL BAD.
I love you very, very much "my friend", and I will be praying for you and yours and loving on the ones you are leaving behind and always reminding them that Nana loves them and will be home soon. You are evidence that God still smiles!!!
The VERY BEST BENEFIT of my bread is the dear friend I was given because of it.
Over ten years ago we moved to our present location. We gained a few friends the summer we spent working on the place and discovered that our neighbors are the best in the world, but a couple months after we moved in we were given a VERY special gift: the Fergusons.
There are times in your life when you just KNOW that God has smiled on you and this was one of those times. :o)
One of the ladies I had met the summer before told me about this family that had visited her church and there were SIX sweet kids and the kids actually seemed to like each other (hehehe--sad that that should be a noticable issue). We were having a puppet team come to our church so I decided, with the encouragement of my summer friend, that I should invite this woman and her sweet kids. So, I stepped WAY out of my comfort zone and called her. She has told me many times the shock and joy she experienced at just getting a phone call. She had just moved here from her family's home in Ohio and was living in rather undesirable circumstances while they built their new house. She had yet to make a friend, and YES, she would come!
The night of the performance an unfamiliar lady walked in with a 9-10 year old boy and although we had MANY visitors, I just knew it was her. So again, I stepped out of my comfort zone and walked over and spoke. It WAS her, (and I was SO thankful-phobias are a bad thing!)she was very pleasant, though obviously as uncomfortable as I was with the situation. We chatted a bit...her other kids were sick... thank you for inviting us...I'm glad you canme...enjoyed the presentation...bye! Oh, well.
So, I'm talking with my summer friend again a couple of months later and after telling her that I wanted to learn to make bread she tells me, "Hey! You should call Mrs. Gail (the lady with all the sweet kids). She makes homemade bread and it is SO good!!!" Really? Okay. I was glad to have an opportunity to speak with this pleasant little lady again, so I called. We had the nicest visit and she volunteered to come to my house and teach me to bake bread, and also sell me wheat if I was interested. YES! I'm going to learn to make bread for my family!!!!! I LOVE BREAD, my family loves bread...I am a rock star!!!!
Mrs. Gail came to my house that day, she taught me to make bread and she visited with my family...and we fell in love. "Miss Gail" and her family have been some of our most precious friends since that season. They helped us through the most difficult time of our life and fed us pancakes as we hid from reality. We helped them as they worked on their house and prayed for them as both Stu's (the bread lady's husband) parents died within months of each other after long illnesses. We have loved their sweet kids and cleaned up after them when they were sick, they have loved our kids and borrowed them on many occasions. We have eaten together, swam together, cried together, laughed together, vacationed together, and worked on many projects together. Their sons have been some of our son's most trusted playmates, their baby daughter is our baby daughter's very BEST, bestie...and their oldest son is our oldest daughter's number one husband. Their very first grandbaby is our very first grandbaby and we love them all.
They are moving to North Dakota for (hopefully) a short stay and they will be sorely missed. For a while there will be no more counseling sessions on the picnic table as we overlook the lake, no more quick runs over here for a visit...just for a while. I am sad, more sad than my voice can squeak out. I will miss this woman, one of my BESTIES...but I know that God has a plan for this pain and He will always do what's best for those who belong to Him, even when it hurts REAL BAD.
I love you very, very much "my friend", and I will be praying for you and yours and loving on the ones you are leaving behind and always reminding them that Nana loves them and will be home soon. You are evidence that God still smiles!!!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Revival, Parts 6 & 7
The Way of Fellowship: Negative and Positive
We had to take two Sundays to cover this difficult topic. Is there anything more difficult to maintain than fellowship with God or man? We all seek to have our own way. A quote from the little book,
"The fall is simply, 'We have turned every one to his own way.' If I want my own way rather than God's, it is very obvious that I will want my own way rather than the other man's. A man does not assert his independence of God to surrender it to a fellow man, if he can help it. But a world in which each man wants his own way cannot but be a world full of tensions, barriers, suspicions, misunderstandings, clashes, and conflicts.
Now the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross was not only to bring men back into fellowship with God, but also into fellowship with their fellow men."*
There are very few chapters in the New Testament that do not deal in some way with the relation of men to God or men to men. We can surmise from that fact that it is important and a problem at the same time. :)
If we are to walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1) then there are some things that we are NOT to do. If we hate our brothers we are walking in darkness. If we are contentious, envious, greedy, angry, etc. then we are not loving anyone but ourselves.
In chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians we are given a picture of what love should look like. Have you ever put your name in the place of the word charity/love? Let's do that:
Meredith is longsuffering, Meredith is kind, Meredith does not boast, etc. Does that describe you? Be honest. I'm sure some of it will be true some of the time and some of it won't be true any of the time. Paul says no matter the sacrifice we make, if we don't have love it profits nothing. We can give our bodies as martyrs but without love, it will profit us nothing. Think. About. That.
Fellowship with God and man must go together. We must have fellowship with God to have fellowship with man (productive, God-honoring fellowship anyway) and we must have fellowship with man to have fellowship with God. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness (hating our brother), we lie and do not the truth....in him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5b and 6)
So, the question is what can we do to promote fellowship with God and man? We are not only called to "get along with" but also to promote the welfare of our fellow man. As I stated earlier, this is a main theme in the New Testament. Here are just a few passages that will help us to have fellowship with our fellows. :)
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:8 & 10
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness...bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:1a & 2
"...by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Galatians 5:13b & 14
Ephesians 4:21-32 highlights: Speak every man truth with his neighbor...Be ye angry and sin not...give to him that needeth...speak only that which edifies and may minister grace unto the hearers...be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another
1 Peter 5:5, "Likewise ye brethren, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject to one another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself, against such there is no law but it is the fulfilling of the law when we do it. You might say we don't have any laws to keep, you would be wrong if you said it though. "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." 1 John 1:3-5 All this we do in Christ who enables/empowers us to do it. As David said in Psalm 119:32, "I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart."
You know, although my words can minister grace or cause needless division, they are JUST MY WORDS. The words that the Lord has said matter more than anything else in the world though. If we disregard what He says because it seems too hard or too boring then we are of all men most CRAZY. "Surely none are so crazy as those who are content to live unprepared to die." J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men
*The Calvary Road, Roy Hession CLC Publications copyright 1950, 1955, 2001
We had to take two Sundays to cover this difficult topic. Is there anything more difficult to maintain than fellowship with God or man? We all seek to have our own way. A quote from the little book,
"The fall is simply, 'We have turned every one to his own way.' If I want my own way rather than God's, it is very obvious that I will want my own way rather than the other man's. A man does not assert his independence of God to surrender it to a fellow man, if he can help it. But a world in which each man wants his own way cannot but be a world full of tensions, barriers, suspicions, misunderstandings, clashes, and conflicts.
Now the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross was not only to bring men back into fellowship with God, but also into fellowship with their fellow men."*
There are very few chapters in the New Testament that do not deal in some way with the relation of men to God or men to men. We can surmise from that fact that it is important and a problem at the same time. :)
If we are to walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1) then there are some things that we are NOT to do. If we hate our brothers we are walking in darkness. If we are contentious, envious, greedy, angry, etc. then we are not loving anyone but ourselves.
In chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians we are given a picture of what love should look like. Have you ever put your name in the place of the word charity/love? Let's do that:
Meredith is longsuffering, Meredith is kind, Meredith does not boast, etc. Does that describe you? Be honest. I'm sure some of it will be true some of the time and some of it won't be true any of the time. Paul says no matter the sacrifice we make, if we don't have love it profits nothing. We can give our bodies as martyrs but without love, it will profit us nothing. Think. About. That.
Fellowship with God and man must go together. We must have fellowship with God to have fellowship with man (productive, God-honoring fellowship anyway) and we must have fellowship with man to have fellowship with God. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness (hating our brother), we lie and do not the truth....in him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5b and 6)
So, the question is what can we do to promote fellowship with God and man? We are not only called to "get along with" but also to promote the welfare of our fellow man. As I stated earlier, this is a main theme in the New Testament. Here are just a few passages that will help us to have fellowship with our fellows. :)
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:8 & 10
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness...bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:1a & 2
"...by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Galatians 5:13b & 14
Ephesians 4:21-32 highlights: Speak every man truth with his neighbor...Be ye angry and sin not...give to him that needeth...speak only that which edifies and may minister grace unto the hearers...be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another
1 Peter 5:5, "Likewise ye brethren, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject to one another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself, against such there is no law but it is the fulfilling of the law when we do it. You might say we don't have any laws to keep, you would be wrong if you said it though. "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." 1 John 1:3-5 All this we do in Christ who enables/empowers us to do it. As David said in Psalm 119:32, "I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart."
You know, although my words can minister grace or cause needless division, they are JUST MY WORDS. The words that the Lord has said matter more than anything else in the world though. If we disregard what He says because it seems too hard or too boring then we are of all men most CRAZY. "Surely none are so crazy as those who are content to live unprepared to die." J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men
*The Calvary Road, Roy Hession CLC Publications copyright 1950, 1955, 2001
Revival, Part 8
You would think that these lessons for us would get easier as time goes by, but they are increasingly more difficult. Unfortunately, I am unable to remember or convey what goes on in Sunday School in a little post like this. I so wish I could. Here goes my best effort:
The Highway of Holiness
If there is one thing about this book that I don't like it's that the author doesn't include enough scripture for us. That just means that I have to do it myself (which is fun!).
This past week we looked at Isaiah 35:8-10 and 1 Peter 1:13-25 and I didn't even make any notes for me or you!
In this chapter Mr. Hession speaks of a picture of a Highway of Holiness referred to in Isaiah 35 as beginning with a trip up a hill to a desolate, forlorn looking cross. At the bottom of that cross is a strait gate that we must bow (sound familiar?) low in order to enter. Once we have entered, the cross becomes glorious and bright, the road straight and narrow. We will end his picture with that, although he goes on with more detail, this is all we discussed in SS.
This straight and narrow way is what all who believe and are known of the Lord must walk, it's referred to in scripture as walking in the Spirit.
Somehow the movie, Magic Mike, came up in conversation. One of our members had been invited to see this movie several different times by several different friends. (Yes, she is very friendly and has lots of friends!) This was a perfect way to illustrate how we should walk on this highway. As Christian women, we must never compromise the standards that God has set forth in His word. "Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." (2 Tim. 2:19b) When we are faced with a decision like this we must choose holiness. Would the Lord like to go see Magic Mike? I am daring to speak for Him and say emphatically, NO!
What would others who are looking at us think of our relationship with the Lord if we think so little of it that we will choose a movie over obedience? I think they would not think much of it.
Holiness is a command, as we see in 1 Peter 1. We are commanded to walk in holiness with our Lord. Our way will not be perfect and without error. In those times when we do stray from the path, we need to be submissive and humble when our Shepherd comes for us.
My prayer for us all is that we would be more concerned with God's glory than with satisfying the desires of our flesh...that seems easy unless Channing Tatum or chocolate chip cookies are involved.
The Christian life is a life of consistency, of making decisions for Christ every day all day. We mustn't seek emotional experiences or mountaintop experiences, but rather the Lord Himself who alone can fill us and keep us filled.
The Highway of Holiness
If there is one thing about this book that I don't like it's that the author doesn't include enough scripture for us. That just means that I have to do it myself (which is fun!).
This past week we looked at Isaiah 35:8-10 and 1 Peter 1:13-25 and I didn't even make any notes for me or you!
In this chapter Mr. Hession speaks of a picture of a Highway of Holiness referred to in Isaiah 35 as beginning with a trip up a hill to a desolate, forlorn looking cross. At the bottom of that cross is a strait gate that we must bow (sound familiar?) low in order to enter. Once we have entered, the cross becomes glorious and bright, the road straight and narrow. We will end his picture with that, although he goes on with more detail, this is all we discussed in SS.
This straight and narrow way is what all who believe and are known of the Lord must walk, it's referred to in scripture as walking in the Spirit.
Somehow the movie, Magic Mike, came up in conversation. One of our members had been invited to see this movie several different times by several different friends. (Yes, she is very friendly and has lots of friends!) This was a perfect way to illustrate how we should walk on this highway. As Christian women, we must never compromise the standards that God has set forth in His word. "Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." (2 Tim. 2:19b) When we are faced with a decision like this we must choose holiness. Would the Lord like to go see Magic Mike? I am daring to speak for Him and say emphatically, NO!
What would others who are looking at us think of our relationship with the Lord if we think so little of it that we will choose a movie over obedience? I think they would not think much of it.
Holiness is a command, as we see in 1 Peter 1. We are commanded to walk in holiness with our Lord. Our way will not be perfect and without error. In those times when we do stray from the path, we need to be submissive and humble when our Shepherd comes for us.
My prayer for us all is that we would be more concerned with God's glory than with satisfying the desires of our flesh...that seems easy unless Channing Tatum or chocolate chip cookies are involved.
The Christian life is a life of consistency, of making decisions for Christ every day all day. We mustn't seek emotional experiences or mountaintop experiences, but rather the Lord Himself who alone can fill us and keep us filled.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Revival, Part 5
As we are doing this study we are also reading most of the book, The Calvary Road, by Roy Hession. Most of the scripture references are being added by me because there weren't enough to satisfy in the little book.
Cleansing! Blood applied.
Let's face the facts, Jack! ;) We are to be clean. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this. We are to be clean.
Read this:
1 Cor. 5:6-8
2 Cor. 6:17-7:1
Ephesians 5:25-27
James 4:8
The Lord commanded that we be cleansed, therefore we know that there is a way for it to be done. Our initial cleansing (Acts 15:9) makes us feel fresh. new. free. However, we need to be cleansed continually because we are continually getting dirty. Here is what Jesus told His disciples: "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean." (John 13:10) Our "feet" get dirty every day, all day in so many different ways. We need that constant cleansing. So, how do we get it? First John 1:5-9 (read that, please) :)
We are cleansed by confessing our sins and trusting that Christ's blood cleanses us as we confess. John says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That sounds so easy, but we have to go back to that brokeness because if we won't admit that we have sinned, we can't be cleansed from any sin. It is my opinion that we must be specific if we can and call sin what it is.
Cleansing is definitely necessary because we are commanded to do it, but I've come to the conclusion that I can never please the Father EXCEPT and ONLY in Christ, through love for Him and my neighbor. You know, that's what it's all about. Being filled with love for God and for my neighbor, against such there is no law. Loving Christ so much that you would gladly die to any "thing" for His sake in service to others is really where it's at. In order to be close to Christ and be a conduit for His love, we MUST be clean!! We must be a clean vessel to be a filled vessel.
God's word acts like a filter--when we read it a lot and think on it prayerfully it will transform our hearts and shape our thought life into something pleasing to God. That is what "renewing our mind" is all about. Out of that renewed mind flows truth, wisdom and works of God (not man). If we are consumed by the love and word of God when something "unclean" comes in, we will know it immediately. We'll feel like we need an internal bath. Jesus' blood is what we bathe with so to speak.
In closing: "'Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests of the law: If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?'" The priests answered and said, "No." Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The priests answered and said, "It does become unclean." (Haggai 2:11-13 ESV)
Just because we are clean, that doesn't mean that we will make what we touch clean. This is just common sense stuff...If it is unclean, it will make us unclean and seperate us from the Lord. To be cleansed we must daily apply the blood of Christ who offered Himself once, for all.
Cleansing! Blood applied.
Let's face the facts, Jack! ;) We are to be clean. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this. We are to be clean.
Read this:
1 Cor. 5:6-8
2 Cor. 6:17-7:1
Ephesians 5:25-27
James 4:8
The Lord commanded that we be cleansed, therefore we know that there is a way for it to be done. Our initial cleansing (Acts 15:9) makes us feel fresh. new. free. However, we need to be cleansed continually because we are continually getting dirty. Here is what Jesus told His disciples: "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean." (John 13:10) Our "feet" get dirty every day, all day in so many different ways. We need that constant cleansing. So, how do we get it? First John 1:5-9 (read that, please) :)
We are cleansed by confessing our sins and trusting that Christ's blood cleanses us as we confess. John says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That sounds so easy, but we have to go back to that brokeness because if we won't admit that we have sinned, we can't be cleansed from any sin. It is my opinion that we must be specific if we can and call sin what it is.
Cleansing is definitely necessary because we are commanded to do it, but I've come to the conclusion that I can never please the Father EXCEPT and ONLY in Christ, through love for Him and my neighbor. You know, that's what it's all about. Being filled with love for God and for my neighbor, against such there is no law. Loving Christ so much that you would gladly die to any "thing" for His sake in service to others is really where it's at. In order to be close to Christ and be a conduit for His love, we MUST be clean!! We must be a clean vessel to be a filled vessel.
God's word acts like a filter--when we read it a lot and think on it prayerfully it will transform our hearts and shape our thought life into something pleasing to God. That is what "renewing our mind" is all about. Out of that renewed mind flows truth, wisdom and works of God (not man). If we are consumed by the love and word of God when something "unclean" comes in, we will know it immediately. We'll feel like we need an internal bath. Jesus' blood is what we bathe with so to speak.
In closing: "'Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests of the law: If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?'" The priests answered and said, "No." Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The priests answered and said, "It does become unclean." (Haggai 2:11-13 ESV)
Just because we are clean, that doesn't mean that we will make what we touch clean. This is just common sense stuff...If it is unclean, it will make us unclean and seperate us from the Lord. To be cleansed we must daily apply the blood of Christ who offered Himself once, for all.
Revival, Part 4
Cup Running Over
We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Take a moment and look these up:
Acts 2:4; 4:8&31; 13:9
Ephesians 3:19; 5:18
Phillipians 1:9-11
Colossians 1:3-14; 2:8&9
And in the Old Testament we are given pictures of God filling His temple (which ye are) with His presence:
2 Chronicles 5:13&14; 7:1-2
Psalm 72:9
Jeremiah 19:4
Ezekiel 43:5; 44:4
Paul commands in Ephesians 5:18, "be filled with the Spirit". Why? How else can we walk worthy of our calling? In Acts we are given many examples of the apostles (whom we admire for their boldness and faith) doing all their mighty works BECAUSE they were filled with the Spirit.
No doubt about it, we are to be filled with God's spirit and with righteousness. Are you? Whatcha gonna do about it?
We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Take a moment and look these up:
Acts 2:4; 4:8&31; 13:9
Ephesians 3:19; 5:18
Phillipians 1:9-11
Colossians 1:3-14; 2:8&9
And in the Old Testament we are given pictures of God filling His temple (which ye are) with His presence:
2 Chronicles 5:13&14; 7:1-2
Psalm 72:9
Jeremiah 19:4
Ezekiel 43:5; 44:4
Paul commands in Ephesians 5:18, "be filled with the Spirit". Why? How else can we walk worthy of our calling? In Acts we are given many examples of the apostles (whom we admire for their boldness and faith) doing all their mighty works BECAUSE they were filled with the Spirit.
No doubt about it, we are to be filled with God's spirit and with righteousness. Are you? Whatcha gonna do about it?
Revival, Part 3
This is part of a Sunday School series we are doing.
If our wills are to be broken, we must see that there is a greater benefit in breaking them than exerting them.
For what purpose would break (or rather, allow God to break) our wills?
God's glory and desire. Isaiah 66:2
Manifestation of faith. Hebrews 11:6
(Search this out for yourself, there are many more verses.)
To be broken before God we must believe that He is who He claims to be and that we are who He says we are: clay (Rom.9), slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:18), temple, building or field of God (1 Cor. 3), etc.
Have you ever just sat down to dwell on who God says that He is? "Be still and know that I am God" will take on a whole new meaning. He created everything by speaking it into being. From mountainpeaks to atoms, God spoke it all into existence. He sustains all that is visible and invisible. He tells the water where to break on the sand and knows the number of the grains of sand; He keeps the weather cycles cycling. He sees the sparrow as it falls to the ground, and numbers the hairs on our heads! He is the giver of physical life and spiritual life and He can destroy both body and soul in Hell or keep us from falling. He rules and reigns and everything obeys His command. One day EVERY knee shall bow and every mouth confess Jesus is Lord.
We, on the other hand, are merely His creation, IF we are Christ's then we are His purchase, His servants, His stewards and His children. The picture that these names give us is of people who are required to answer to a higher authority. Any rights or authority that they might have has been given to them by their Master. When we are broken we realize this and embrace the truth of it. We know that we could never "run our days" like God can and so we look to Him for everything.
Isn't this where we ALL need to be? Being aware of who I am and seeking to know who He is. Although I don't believe that we can truly know ourselves like He knows us, I can understand my position in Christ. In Christ I am Christ's, a priest and a servant to the Most High God, an adopted child...that is all. I am not my own master. I am no longer my own for I've been bought with a price, a price so great only God Himself could pay it.
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Ephesians 5:2
If our wills are to be broken, we must see that there is a greater benefit in breaking them than exerting them.
For what purpose would break (or rather, allow God to break) our wills?
God's glory and desire. Isaiah 66:2
Manifestation of faith. Hebrews 11:6
(Search this out for yourself, there are many more verses.)
To be broken before God we must believe that He is who He claims to be and that we are who He says we are: clay (Rom.9), slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:18), temple, building or field of God (1 Cor. 3), etc.
Have you ever just sat down to dwell on who God says that He is? "Be still and know that I am God" will take on a whole new meaning. He created everything by speaking it into being. From mountainpeaks to atoms, God spoke it all into existence. He sustains all that is visible and invisible. He tells the water where to break on the sand and knows the number of the grains of sand; He keeps the weather cycles cycling. He sees the sparrow as it falls to the ground, and numbers the hairs on our heads! He is the giver of physical life and spiritual life and He can destroy both body and soul in Hell or keep us from falling. He rules and reigns and everything obeys His command. One day EVERY knee shall bow and every mouth confess Jesus is Lord.
We, on the other hand, are merely His creation, IF we are Christ's then we are His purchase, His servants, His stewards and His children. The picture that these names give us is of people who are required to answer to a higher authority. Any rights or authority that they might have has been given to them by their Master. When we are broken we realize this and embrace the truth of it. We know that we could never "run our days" like God can and so we look to Him for everything.
Isn't this where we ALL need to be? Being aware of who I am and seeking to know who He is. Although I don't believe that we can truly know ourselves like He knows us, I can understand my position in Christ. In Christ I am Christ's, a priest and a servant to the Most High God, an adopted child...that is all. I am not my own master. I am no longer my own for I've been bought with a price, a price so great only God Himself could pay it.
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Ephesians 5:2
Revival, Part 2
I'm not sure of the wisdom of posting this on my blog. Not because I'm ashamed to post it at all, but rather, I am afraid it is too stark and bare for some to bear. (I had to do it, I HAD to put that extra bear/bare in there...sigh.) If there is a post topic you will want to skip it will be these. Just sayin'.
MY life is over. You know, the one I call my own. The one in which "I" think I make all the decisions. If I want to experience Christ in a REAL and lasting way, then I have to cease the exercizing of my will. This is the gist of the first chapter of Roy Hession's book, The Calvary Road. Every aspect of my life is to be submitted to the Lord. My will is to be broken before His.
This whole idea really came home to me when I read Isaiah chapter twenty. I have read Isaiah twenty before but I was disturbed to read that Isaiah walked around naked and barefoot for THREE YEARS!!! I thought about this a lot because, well, as I said, it's DISTURBING.
Isaiah was being obedient to what God told him to do. The truth is, we don't know what obedience will always mean for us, but we must decide if we are willing to be obedient anyway. I'm fairly certain that as Isaiah stood there in chapter 6 in awe of God's throne room, he never dreamed that by chapter twenty he'd be walking around naked and barefoot. (Now, I haven't looked the word "naked" up in the Hebrew, that's not my point. My point is that Isaiah obeyed what seems like a REALLY difficult to obey command to prove God's point to the people.) You know of what else I'm fairly certain? That the vision that Isaiah had was powerful enough to carry him through the rest of his life. He had a vision of God AND himself and he KNEW. He knew who he was in comparison...what comparison? Is there a comparison? No, not at all.
Isaiah is one of the few who were allowed to see anything like this, and one of the VERY few who were allowed to keep standing and not fall on their face as dead. This is the same God we serve. I think we could stand a dose of reality. Our God is holy, holy, holy and we are not, not, not...to infinity and beyond. Through Christ, through Christ we are to walk worthy of our calling to the pleasing of our FATHER. Here's what 1 Thessalonians 4:1 says, "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more."
So, does what I say, think, do, eat, wear matter to God? Yes. "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. " (Col. 3:17) Does it matter enough to keep me from experiencing His presence in my life on a daily basis? Yes. (1 John) If I am to truly belong to the Father and have the "spirit of adoption"(Rom. 8:15), then my will must. be. broken. A perfect example of this truth is how any child exercizing their own will is not teachable or moldable. They only become teachable when they submit and HUMBLE themselves enough to be taught.
"Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THE SAME IS BECOME THE HEAD OF THE CORNER; THIS IS THE LORD'S DOING AND IT IS MARVELLOUS IN OUR EYES? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Matt. 21:42-44 (emphasis added)
Who would think that falling on a stone and being broken would be a good thing? It is though. It's the BEST THING.
MY life is over. You know, the one I call my own. The one in which "I" think I make all the decisions. If I want to experience Christ in a REAL and lasting way, then I have to cease the exercizing of my will. This is the gist of the first chapter of Roy Hession's book, The Calvary Road. Every aspect of my life is to be submitted to the Lord. My will is to be broken before His.
This whole idea really came home to me when I read Isaiah chapter twenty. I have read Isaiah twenty before but I was disturbed to read that Isaiah walked around naked and barefoot for THREE YEARS!!! I thought about this a lot because, well, as I said, it's DISTURBING.
Isaiah was being obedient to what God told him to do. The truth is, we don't know what obedience will always mean for us, but we must decide if we are willing to be obedient anyway. I'm fairly certain that as Isaiah stood there in chapter 6 in awe of God's throne room, he never dreamed that by chapter twenty he'd be walking around naked and barefoot. (Now, I haven't looked the word "naked" up in the Hebrew, that's not my point. My point is that Isaiah obeyed what seems like a REALLY difficult to obey command to prove God's point to the people.) You know of what else I'm fairly certain? That the vision that Isaiah had was powerful enough to carry him through the rest of his life. He had a vision of God AND himself and he KNEW. He knew who he was in comparison...what comparison? Is there a comparison? No, not at all.
Isaiah is one of the few who were allowed to see anything like this, and one of the VERY few who were allowed to keep standing and not fall on their face as dead. This is the same God we serve. I think we could stand a dose of reality. Our God is holy, holy, holy and we are not, not, not...to infinity and beyond. Through Christ, through Christ we are to walk worthy of our calling to the pleasing of our FATHER. Here's what 1 Thessalonians 4:1 says, "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more."
So, does what I say, think, do, eat, wear matter to God? Yes. "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. " (Col. 3:17) Does it matter enough to keep me from experiencing His presence in my life on a daily basis? Yes. (1 John) If I am to truly belong to the Father and have the "spirit of adoption"(Rom. 8:15), then my will must. be. broken. A perfect example of this truth is how any child exercizing their own will is not teachable or moldable. They only become teachable when they submit and HUMBLE themselves enough to be taught.
"Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THE SAME IS BECOME THE HEAD OF THE CORNER; THIS IS THE LORD'S DOING AND IT IS MARVELLOUS IN OUR EYES? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Matt. 21:42-44 (emphasis added)
Who would think that falling on a stone and being broken would be a good thing? It is though. It's the BEST THING.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Revival....
Revival. This is what I am studying and sharing in Sunday School. I have listened to lots of sermons about revival and they are definitely something I wish I could share. Alas! I cannot. There's just too much good stuff in them for me to share it here, besides, it wouldn't be the same. :) Just go to sermonaudio.com and download a sermon by Richard Owen Roberts or Paul Washer and you'll get my drift.
I wanted to blog about this because some of our class members weren't there for all the lessons, and even a couple weren't there for any...:( We miss you, guys! So, for all the rest of you guys out there in cyberspace reading this blog, I hope you enjoy...but, KNOW THIS--you were warned. hehehehe.
We are basing our study on a book by Roy Hession called The Calvary Road. It can be purchased online if you're interested. It's just a little book with short chapters but it is packed with lots of good thought provoking experience. There aren't very many scripture references so I am adding those as we go along. Off we go!!!
***My power went off and I had to go pretend to be a good mother. ;) I have to wait now til a little later. I'm posting this for a reason, ya know. I'll add to after a bit.
I wanted to blog about this because some of our class members weren't there for all the lessons, and even a couple weren't there for any...:( We miss you, guys! So, for all the rest of you guys out there in cyberspace reading this blog, I hope you enjoy...but, KNOW THIS--you were warned. hehehehe.
We are basing our study on a book by Roy Hession called The Calvary Road. It can be purchased online if you're interested. It's just a little book with short chapters but it is packed with lots of good thought provoking experience. There aren't very many scripture references so I am adding those as we go along. Off we go!!!
***My power went off and I had to go pretend to be a good mother. ;) I have to wait now til a little later. I'm posting this for a reason, ya know. I'll add to after a bit.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Gleanings from the Lord's Mirrored Table
I love the story of Ruth for several reasons. 1.) It is a picture of the bride of Christ because of the "purchase" or redemption of Ruth and Naomi. 2.) It pictures the love and mercy of the Lord in His care for the widows. 3.) Another Gentile woman is brought in to the lineage of our Saviour. There are more reasons but I've listed enough.
Boaz was so kind to intentionally leave "fruit" for Ruth to glean to help feed herself and her mother-in-law. The Lord does this for us as well. He leaves just little small things that we pick up, one or two at the time, that's usually all we can manage. We can be fed by those things and then come back for more. We read and it seems that He opened the book and pointed out the passage for us. His word truly is alive and sharp.
Lately He has been exceptionally kind in His dealings with me. He has thrown down many good pieces of barley for me to gather. I've picked it up and been very convicted by what He's shown me, but so thankful that He noticed and dealt with me so kindly when He didn't have to. I deserved much less. He knows my flesh and my inability to do anything right and remembers and has mercy.
My eyes are to be constantly and always on Him, not on you or them or even me. Him. I am to follow hard after Him and love Him and choose the better part. Before my own Master I stand or fall.
His word is a mirror of my soul and if I look into it long enough I will see my blemishes. These blemishes are removable and need to be removed. :) With the washing of water by the word these ugly spots will be removed by my Groom. Eventually I will be just like He wants me to be, just like Him, but for now I just need to keep looking into that Mirror and allowing myself to be transformed by what I see there.
You see, it's only when we gaze into His holiness that we are able to see our need for Him and His love for us. It's only when we recognize His worth that we can come to understand the true cost of our sin. It's not OUR worth we should be concerned about but His.
"Take heed to thyself. Your own soul is your first and greatest care. You know a sound body alone can work with power; much more a healthy soul. Keep a clear conscience through the blood of the Lamb. Keep up close communion with God. Study likeness to Him in all things." —Robert Murray M'Cheyne
Robert Murray McCheyne was only 29 when he died and yet he had a lot of wisdom and an apparent close communion with God. Why? He spent a LOT of time looking in the Mirror. It is said that he read the Old Testament through once a year and the New Testament and the Psalms twice a year. The saying goes, we are what we eat...well, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. THAT is where we find life--renewal, power, courage, love, truth...EVERY good thing.
May I do this very thing and find myself being transformed by God's mirror, slowly but surely into the very image of His dear Son.
Boaz was so kind to intentionally leave "fruit" for Ruth to glean to help feed herself and her mother-in-law. The Lord does this for us as well. He leaves just little small things that we pick up, one or two at the time, that's usually all we can manage. We can be fed by those things and then come back for more. We read and it seems that He opened the book and pointed out the passage for us. His word truly is alive and sharp.
Lately He has been exceptionally kind in His dealings with me. He has thrown down many good pieces of barley for me to gather. I've picked it up and been very convicted by what He's shown me, but so thankful that He noticed and dealt with me so kindly when He didn't have to. I deserved much less. He knows my flesh and my inability to do anything right and remembers and has mercy.
My eyes are to be constantly and always on Him, not on you or them or even me. Him. I am to follow hard after Him and love Him and choose the better part. Before my own Master I stand or fall.
His word is a mirror of my soul and if I look into it long enough I will see my blemishes. These blemishes are removable and need to be removed. :) With the washing of water by the word these ugly spots will be removed by my Groom. Eventually I will be just like He wants me to be, just like Him, but for now I just need to keep looking into that Mirror and allowing myself to be transformed by what I see there.
You see, it's only when we gaze into His holiness that we are able to see our need for Him and His love for us. It's only when we recognize His worth that we can come to understand the true cost of our sin. It's not OUR worth we should be concerned about but His.
"Take heed to thyself. Your own soul is your first and greatest care. You know a sound body alone can work with power; much more a healthy soul. Keep a clear conscience through the blood of the Lamb. Keep up close communion with God. Study likeness to Him in all things." —Robert Murray M'Cheyne
Robert Murray McCheyne was only 29 when he died and yet he had a lot of wisdom and an apparent close communion with God. Why? He spent a LOT of time looking in the Mirror. It is said that he read the Old Testament through once a year and the New Testament and the Psalms twice a year. The saying goes, we are what we eat...well, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. THAT is where we find life--renewal, power, courage, love, truth...EVERY good thing.
May I do this very thing and find myself being transformed by God's mirror, slowly but surely into the very image of His dear Son.
The Ramblings of the Mentally Disturbed ;)
Have you looked up the definition of lazy in the dictionary lately? If so, you probably saw a picture of me. Let me know if you saw my picture though because nobody asked if they could put that in there, and I'm NOT going to win any prizes for being photogenic. ;) What's up with that anyway? Some of my friends and my kids and my kids' friends and my friends' kids all smile like they were trained to be models. ?? I just generally look a little like a dork...no, a lot like a dork. (Oh, I forgot, I'm not supposed to say dork anymore, it's not cool...oops! Oh, but HEY! I don't care. I'm friends with Si Robertson on Facebook!!! It's on like donkey kong, HEY! hehehehe)
Moving on, we had a busy spring season with the remodeling, a little short vacation and some ministry opportunities and it seems I cannot get back into the routine of life. I'm tired of that and I don't know what to do about it. I wish I was organized and remembered that I was organized because I can get organized but then I forgot I did it. Sigh.
I'm going to try to do better...good grief!...I've got to or we won't eat around here. :)
I've been being taught many things about myself and about life in general lately. Hmmm, maybe that's what's kept me down. hehehehehe. Naw, I'm not down, just barely moving...I tell people I have teenageritis. Ever heard of it? If not, and you have children, you will. I love my teenagers and they love me. We have a good relationship but that doesn't change the fact that they have all these things going on in their lives. They have not been brainwashed properly. If they had they would be perfectly obedient and think my thoughts after me. I really need to go that brainwashing school that everybody thinks I graduated from, with honors BTW...GOSH. Perhaps the little girls will do better with their brainwashing, maybe they'll be more receptive. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!;) NO, I DO NOT BRAINWASH MY KIDS OK?! DON'T TURN ME IN TO THE (shhhh)...authorities.
On that note, I would like to think that they (the teenagers) are renewing their minds in Christ. Unfortunately, I can't. They won't let me think that. They like me better unnerved.
All seriousness aside, I'm wondering if I'm really going to post all this incessant rambling. Probably. Maybe. Why not? They don't read my blog posts, nobody does. :)
Speaking of blogging,both my older girls are blogging now. Check them out at: http://carolinesreviews.wordpress.com/ and http://chamomilecreek.blogspot.com/ (I tried to do active links but it wouldn't let me. :( What is wrong with you, Blogger?)
Okay, so after 42 years I started drinking COFFEE!!! I couldn't believe it and when I told my sister she's like, "ME, TOO!" How weird is that? Raised by a father who bled coffee and grandparents who taught him to bleed that way you'd think one of us kids would drink the stuff--nope--not til now anyway. Now we do. Of course, I'm not tough like them, I don't drink it straight. I don't know how people do that without making really ugly, weird faces. ?? I like mine with about a teaspoon or so of honey and milk (not as much as my hubs thinks I like tho). It's good. Since I started drinking it I've noticed that the people who love it always try to validate the drinking of it. They say stuff like, "the news said it's good for ya" and "it supposed to extend your life". The folks who don't like it say, "that stuff'll kill ya" and "you know it keeps you from absorbing iron". I just love to be sitting near a "lover" and a "hater" and start a conversation/fight. hehehehe It makes for good blogging material, except I never blog, so... For all you haters out there, I only drink a cup a day or so--for all you lovers, I'm sorry, it's true. I must say in defense of the bitter stuff, that the aforementioned grandmother lived to be 92 and was energetic every day of her life...her husband died at 68 and was tired when he did...go figure? Just like everything else I guess, there's no right answer. (I REALLY hate that, too.)
Like Solomon said years ago, everything under the sun? Vanity. (ie. there are no right answers) Oh, wait a minute. There was one thing you could do that wouldn't be vain. "Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." Then Paul said, "...[abound]in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain the Lord." Ecc. 12:13b and 1 Cor. 15:58b (To clarify for all my friends who think I'm trying to make it to heaven on works-hahahahahaha-can't be done. We must be known by the Lord Jesus Christ or He will say, "Depart from Me. I never knew you." That's the REAL question to ask you know. Not do you know Jesus, but does He know you.)
Be blessed, my friends! Be blessed as you follow Him. (If you don't follow Him yet...find Him and start...you will never regret it.) :)
Moving on, we had a busy spring season with the remodeling, a little short vacation and some ministry opportunities and it seems I cannot get back into the routine of life. I'm tired of that and I don't know what to do about it. I wish I was organized and remembered that I was organized because I can get organized but then I forgot I did it. Sigh.
I'm going to try to do better...good grief!...I've got to or we won't eat around here. :)
I've been being taught many things about myself and about life in general lately. Hmmm, maybe that's what's kept me down. hehehehehe. Naw, I'm not down, just barely moving...I tell people I have teenageritis. Ever heard of it? If not, and you have children, you will. I love my teenagers and they love me. We have a good relationship but that doesn't change the fact that they have all these things going on in their lives. They have not been brainwashed properly. If they had they would be perfectly obedient and think my thoughts after me. I really need to go that brainwashing school that everybody thinks I graduated from, with honors BTW...GOSH. Perhaps the little girls will do better with their brainwashing, maybe they'll be more receptive. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!;) NO, I DO NOT BRAINWASH MY KIDS OK?! DON'T TURN ME IN TO THE (shhhh)...authorities.
On that note, I would like to think that they (the teenagers) are renewing their minds in Christ. Unfortunately, I can't. They won't let me think that. They like me better unnerved.
All seriousness aside, I'm wondering if I'm really going to post all this incessant rambling. Probably. Maybe. Why not? They don't read my blog posts, nobody does. :)
Speaking of blogging,both my older girls are blogging now. Check them out at: http://carolinesreviews.wordpress.com/ and http://chamomilecreek.blogspot.com/ (I tried to do active links but it wouldn't let me. :( What is wrong with you, Blogger?)
Okay, so after 42 years I started drinking COFFEE!!! I couldn't believe it and when I told my sister she's like, "ME, TOO!" How weird is that? Raised by a father who bled coffee and grandparents who taught him to bleed that way you'd think one of us kids would drink the stuff--nope--not til now anyway. Now we do. Of course, I'm not tough like them, I don't drink it straight. I don't know how people do that without making really ugly, weird faces. ?? I like mine with about a teaspoon or so of honey and milk (not as much as my hubs thinks I like tho). It's good. Since I started drinking it I've noticed that the people who love it always try to validate the drinking of it. They say stuff like, "the news said it's good for ya" and "it supposed to extend your life". The folks who don't like it say, "that stuff'll kill ya" and "you know it keeps you from absorbing iron". I just love to be sitting near a "lover" and a "hater" and start a conversation/fight. hehehehe It makes for good blogging material, except I never blog, so... For all you haters out there, I only drink a cup a day or so--for all you lovers, I'm sorry, it's true. I must say in defense of the bitter stuff, that the aforementioned grandmother lived to be 92 and was energetic every day of her life...her husband died at 68 and was tired when he did...go figure? Just like everything else I guess, there's no right answer. (I REALLY hate that, too.)
Like Solomon said years ago, everything under the sun? Vanity. (ie. there are no right answers) Oh, wait a minute. There was one thing you could do that wouldn't be vain. "Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." Then Paul said, "...[abound]in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain the Lord." Ecc. 12:13b and 1 Cor. 15:58b (To clarify for all my friends who think I'm trying to make it to heaven on works-hahahahahaha-can't be done. We must be known by the Lord Jesus Christ or He will say, "Depart from Me. I never knew you." That's the REAL question to ask you know. Not do you know Jesus, but does He know you.)
Be blessed, my friends! Be blessed as you follow Him. (If you don't follow Him yet...find Him and start...you will never regret it.) :)
Monday, April 9, 2012
Updating Friends
I haven't posted lately because I've been busy AND in kind of a bad mood. :) (Just being real.)
******
We have a wonderful friend who was able to help us finish our back room finally and now we have a lovely bedroom back there--or sewing room--or grandbaby nap room--or grandma room--whatever it is, it's pretty. :) We painted it a robin's egg blue with dark brown and a creamy white trim. :)
I will post pictures when it's empty of the flooring for the rest of the house and completely finished. We still have to hang a ceiling fan and put some furniture in there.
******
I guess this will be the first year in who-knows-when that we won't have a big garden. I hope to plant some tomatoes still and Erin had Petes plant some onions and cabbage. It's super sad. I really need to go buy some herbs and tomatoes very soon. Maybe I can do that tomorrow? I need to add that to my list...
******
The Lord truly blesses us so much just with health and love and relationships--even the relationships that I don't ever truly appreciate are a blessing because they grow me and help me learn to be a little more gracious.
I hope you are blessed and being a blessing to others--I hope that I might be a blessing to you.
******
We have a wonderful friend who was able to help us finish our back room finally and now we have a lovely bedroom back there--or sewing room--or grandbaby nap room--or grandma room--whatever it is, it's pretty. :) We painted it a robin's egg blue with dark brown and a creamy white trim. :)
I will post pictures when it's empty of the flooring for the rest of the house and completely finished. We still have to hang a ceiling fan and put some furniture in there.
******
I guess this will be the first year in who-knows-when that we won't have a big garden. I hope to plant some tomatoes still and Erin had Petes plant some onions and cabbage. It's super sad. I really need to go buy some herbs and tomatoes very soon. Maybe I can do that tomorrow? I need to add that to my list...
******
The Lord truly blesses us so much just with health and love and relationships--even the relationships that I don't ever truly appreciate are a blessing because they grow me and help me learn to be a little more gracious.
I hope you are blessed and being a blessing to others--I hope that I might be a blessing to you.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Leave Your Nets
I wish everyone could experience, just once, being in our Wednesday night class. :)
I had asked our young friend, Adam, to teach for me last night since I had a big day at the doctor with the grandbaby yesterday. (So thankful that all that went well!) Adam always says something worth hearing in my opinion and I just love to listen to him teach and really, I like to just sit and listen to him talk. His brain works so much differently from mine and it's fun to visit with people like that...well, it depends on the person, I guess. hehehe. Anyway, he was talking about Jesus calling the disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John in Matthew 4. His point was that when Jesus came to call, they dropped what they were doing immediately to follow Him. As Adam pointed out to the class, this meant that they were dropping their lifestyle, source of income, the family business, everything. The question he asked was, are WE willing to do that? I was sitting there thinking to myself, "Not really."
There have been moments that I was willing, but they were brief and few. Most of the time I just work on convincing myself that there is no need to that, and I'm probably right, most of the time. But, there may come a time when I have to leave my nets immediately.
What those nets represent is security, family, dreams...imagine that dropping EVERYTHING that we hold dear to our hearts just to follow someone we haven't known very long at all. Some one that's been gone for over a month, someone saying weird things like, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." That would have surely been hard for them and their families, AND it is hard for us, too. However, I think the fact remains that He is calling each one of us to leave our nets and follow Him where ever He leads. We sing it, "wherever He leads I'll go", but do we mean it? I don't know about me, do you know about you?
Thanks, Adam. Thanks for challenging me with your insight and your humility. We love you bunches and tons!
I had asked our young friend, Adam, to teach for me last night since I had a big day at the doctor with the grandbaby yesterday. (So thankful that all that went well!) Adam always says something worth hearing in my opinion and I just love to listen to him teach and really, I like to just sit and listen to him talk. His brain works so much differently from mine and it's fun to visit with people like that...well, it depends on the person, I guess. hehehe. Anyway, he was talking about Jesus calling the disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John in Matthew 4. His point was that when Jesus came to call, they dropped what they were doing immediately to follow Him. As Adam pointed out to the class, this meant that they were dropping their lifestyle, source of income, the family business, everything. The question he asked was, are WE willing to do that? I was sitting there thinking to myself, "Not really."
There have been moments that I was willing, but they were brief and few. Most of the time I just work on convincing myself that there is no need to that, and I'm probably right, most of the time. But, there may come a time when I have to leave my nets immediately.
What those nets represent is security, family, dreams...imagine that dropping EVERYTHING that we hold dear to our hearts just to follow someone we haven't known very long at all. Some one that's been gone for over a month, someone saying weird things like, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." That would have surely been hard for them and their families, AND it is hard for us, too. However, I think the fact remains that He is calling each one of us to leave our nets and follow Him where ever He leads. We sing it, "wherever He leads I'll go", but do we mean it? I don't know about me, do you know about you?
Thanks, Adam. Thanks for challenging me with your insight and your humility. We love you bunches and tons!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Sorry, Friends...
I realize that my blogging is inconsistent at best and in reality almost nonexistent. It is the best I can do, I have no time to blog. BUT I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY! ;)
We'll visit again soon.
We'll visit again soon.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Feeling Gloomy? Got Cabin Fever?
If you live in my area the answer to those questions is probably "no" since it's been more like March around here than January. :) But, if the answer is yes, then have I got news for you!
"If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday." (Isaiah 58:10, ESV)
I realize that I need to change my attitude about life and quit focusing on what I think I am missing out on. Good grief! Gloom, despair and agony on me. ;)
This life is NOT it, I have a hope and a future that makes anything I might have here pale in comparison. I am supposed to be living my life in service to others as if they were Christ. The way I treat others should be a reflection of my love for Him.
My life is also not supposed to be one giant feast of the flesh. Pleasing my flesh is what I really like to do, but it is pure sin when I actually do it. I'm not saying it's a sin to eat when I'm hungry, or rest when I'm tired. What I'm saying is, if I choose to please my flesh instead of being obedient to what I know I'm SUPPOSED to be doing, I am sinning.
I am getting married again one day, and I need to rejoice because my Groom loves me and gave Himself for me. As I'm waiting for Him to come and get me I could "eat, drink and be merry" as one who has no hope, OR I can live like a loving and benevolent queen-to-be. You might think that sounds arrogant, I do, too. I know I'm not cut out to be a queen, but as a part of the bride of the King that's what I am. I should walk in dignity and grace, loving those who need love, serving those who need help, and caring for those who need care. I think as part of His bride we should all be concerned about one thing, and that is bringing Him glory and honor.
So, instead of bemoaning all the things that I have to give up, things that are dumb and useless anyway, I need to be looking around for something better to do. I have a wedding to prepare for after all and there are things that need to be done. :)
"If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday." (Isaiah 58:10, ESV)
I realize that I need to change my attitude about life and quit focusing on what I think I am missing out on. Good grief! Gloom, despair and agony on me. ;)
This life is NOT it, I have a hope and a future that makes anything I might have here pale in comparison. I am supposed to be living my life in service to others as if they were Christ. The way I treat others should be a reflection of my love for Him.
My life is also not supposed to be one giant feast of the flesh. Pleasing my flesh is what I really like to do, but it is pure sin when I actually do it. I'm not saying it's a sin to eat when I'm hungry, or rest when I'm tired. What I'm saying is, if I choose to please my flesh instead of being obedient to what I know I'm SUPPOSED to be doing, I am sinning.
I am getting married again one day, and I need to rejoice because my Groom loves me and gave Himself for me. As I'm waiting for Him to come and get me I could "eat, drink and be merry" as one who has no hope, OR I can live like a loving and benevolent queen-to-be. You might think that sounds arrogant, I do, too. I know I'm not cut out to be a queen, but as a part of the bride of the King that's what I am. I should walk in dignity and grace, loving those who need love, serving those who need help, and caring for those who need care. I think as part of His bride we should all be concerned about one thing, and that is bringing Him glory and honor.
So, instead of bemoaning all the things that I have to give up, things that are dumb and useless anyway, I need to be looking around for something better to do. I have a wedding to prepare for after all and there are things that need to be done. :)
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Please pardon my language...I'm on a (shhh) DIET...again
Update:
So far I've lost about eleven pounds. My scale isn't the most reliable so that's why I say about eleven pounds. :) For the last three weeks I've maintained my weight and wondered why since I have been being a pretty good girl post-fudge.
Sunday I was noticing my sister playing with her new phone a lot so, being the nosey person that I am, I looked to see what she was playing. Lo and behold, it was Myfitnesspal! This is an app that will allow you to put in your food and water intake, exercize regimen, and your goals and calculate how many calories you need in a day and how many you eat, etc.! I LOVE it. It was eye-opening to see just how many calories I do consume. !!
I make every (well, almost) effort to consume nutritious calories. I don't eat the processed food or the white stuff (flour, sugar, rice) and since I've been on my diet I have cut out all dairy except yogurt with active cultures and eggs. I have been eating fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.
All this dieting (again) got me to thinking about the reason I have to diet so often. Our pastor said something the other night that really stuck in my head. He said that as a Christian, we are not called to an easy walk with Christ. It is more like we are a fish swimming against the current, or a football player facing a defensive line and that D-line's goal is to make us lose so much yardage that we end up in their endzone.
If I may now take all my lose ends and wind them together for you, my problem is this: I can lose weight (but only if the Lord is giving me strength because I AM addicted to food), but I don't keep working on good habits: eating nutritious foods, shunning empty foods and exercize. Once I have reached the goal I am happy with, I quit working. I go back to swimming with the crowd--or maybe I should say, floating with the current.
ANYTHING worth having or doing in life takes hard work. It takes work to lose weight, but it doesn't take work for ME to gain weight. It takes work to raise children to fear the Lord, it doesn't take much work to just let a child grow up. It takes WORK to stand on scriptural principles and walk with Christ. It doesn't take much work to go with the flow and float down the "Mainstream" Christian River...but just stop and stand on a principle and see what happens. Before you know it, all the other floaters are trying to knock you off your Rock and back into the water because you're in the way of progress. After all, we can't get people to heaven if we are constantly standing of principles...we have to DO something...some kind of WORK.
Wow! How'd I get from white flour to the "Mainstream" Christian River? Oh, I know, they're both empty--not empty in that there IS something there, it's just void of any nutrition.
Staying on a diet that adds to my health means that I must choose healthy foods to put into my mouth, use my body for something besides a pillow for my couch, sleep at night and drink water. If I want to (and I do) add to my spiritual health then I have to drink in the Living Water of truth and walk in righteousness, pleasing to Christ. And I must, when I've done all else, STAND and keep standing. (All in Christ, for without Him we can do nothing worthwhile.)
However, I can add to my emotional health by floating idly down Mainstream Christian River because I can be in the most abominable sin mentioned in the bible, but as long as "I just LOVE Jesus" I'm at peace and all is good in the world.
I don't want to just be emotionally and physically healthy, and I don't want JUST that for my loved ones or even my enemies. I desire spiritual health for these and myself.
Take up your cross daily, He said. What else can we do? It takes work.
NOT SO I CAN BE SAVED, BUT BECAUSE I AM SAVED.
So far I've lost about eleven pounds. My scale isn't the most reliable so that's why I say about eleven pounds. :) For the last three weeks I've maintained my weight and wondered why since I have been being a pretty good girl post-fudge.
Sunday I was noticing my sister playing with her new phone a lot so, being the nosey person that I am, I looked to see what she was playing. Lo and behold, it was Myfitnesspal! This is an app that will allow you to put in your food and water intake, exercize regimen, and your goals and calculate how many calories you need in a day and how many you eat, etc.! I LOVE it. It was eye-opening to see just how many calories I do consume. !!
I make every (well, almost) effort to consume nutritious calories. I don't eat the processed food or the white stuff (flour, sugar, rice) and since I've been on my diet I have cut out all dairy except yogurt with active cultures and eggs. I have been eating fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.
All this dieting (again) got me to thinking about the reason I have to diet so often. Our pastor said something the other night that really stuck in my head. He said that as a Christian, we are not called to an easy walk with Christ. It is more like we are a fish swimming against the current, or a football player facing a defensive line and that D-line's goal is to make us lose so much yardage that we end up in their endzone.
If I may now take all my lose ends and wind them together for you, my problem is this: I can lose weight (but only if the Lord is giving me strength because I AM addicted to food), but I don't keep working on good habits: eating nutritious foods, shunning empty foods and exercize. Once I have reached the goal I am happy with, I quit working. I go back to swimming with the crowd--or maybe I should say, floating with the current.
ANYTHING worth having or doing in life takes hard work. It takes work to lose weight, but it doesn't take work for ME to gain weight. It takes work to raise children to fear the Lord, it doesn't take much work to just let a child grow up. It takes WORK to stand on scriptural principles and walk with Christ. It doesn't take much work to go with the flow and float down the "Mainstream" Christian River...but just stop and stand on a principle and see what happens. Before you know it, all the other floaters are trying to knock you off your Rock and back into the water because you're in the way of progress. After all, we can't get people to heaven if we are constantly standing of principles...we have to DO something...some kind of WORK.
Wow! How'd I get from white flour to the "Mainstream" Christian River? Oh, I know, they're both empty--not empty in that there IS something there, it's just void of any nutrition.
Staying on a diet that adds to my health means that I must choose healthy foods to put into my mouth, use my body for something besides a pillow for my couch, sleep at night and drink water. If I want to (and I do) add to my spiritual health then I have to drink in the Living Water of truth and walk in righteousness, pleasing to Christ. And I must, when I've done all else, STAND and keep standing. (All in Christ, for without Him we can do nothing worthwhile.)
However, I can add to my emotional health by floating idly down Mainstream Christian River because I can be in the most abominable sin mentioned in the bible, but as long as "I just LOVE Jesus" I'm at peace and all is good in the world.
I don't want to just be emotionally and physically healthy, and I don't want JUST that for my loved ones or even my enemies. I desire spiritual health for these and myself.
Take up your cross daily, He said. What else can we do? It takes work.
NOT SO I CAN BE SAVED, BUT BECAUSE I AM SAVED.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
An Orphaned Kid
Considering what we do everyday around here, you might think I'm talking about an actual child. I'm not.
Week before last we had 3 does kid and one of them rejected one of her kids, a little doe. This is a first for us in three years. We've never had a doe reject a baby. All our does have been good moms.
We weren't out there when she kidded, in fact, we weren't even home. My hubby thinks she had problems with the birth of number two and therefore "forgot" number one.
Well, we had to adopt her or she would die. My sweet daughter adopted her and named her Mrs. Darcy after Elizabeth Darcy of Pride and Prejudice. Now, every time we walk outside she comes RUNNING to us and bleating; she ignores all the other goats and runs along with us.
The problem I have is this: how can that Moma forget her baby? How can she reject her own "flesh and blood"? Everytime I see that little goat, I think of all the little ones in this world that mothers and fathers have rejected. Their parents are not dead, they've just rejected their children in favor of other things. :(
One thing is for certain, our Father in heaven never rejects us. He always loves us instead. He has our best interest in mind, even when it doesn't feel that way to us.
I believe it's made very clear in scripture that He wants to love the rejected through us. It might be little children, it might be the handicapped or elderly, or it might just be a little goat. Just think about all that little goat taught me in one trip to the mailbox--and I'm not even her "moma".
Week before last we had 3 does kid and one of them rejected one of her kids, a little doe. This is a first for us in three years. We've never had a doe reject a baby. All our does have been good moms.
We weren't out there when she kidded, in fact, we weren't even home. My hubby thinks she had problems with the birth of number two and therefore "forgot" number one.
Well, we had to adopt her or she would die. My sweet daughter adopted her and named her Mrs. Darcy after Elizabeth Darcy of Pride and Prejudice. Now, every time we walk outside she comes RUNNING to us and bleating; she ignores all the other goats and runs along with us.
The problem I have is this: how can that Moma forget her baby? How can she reject her own "flesh and blood"? Everytime I see that little goat, I think of all the little ones in this world that mothers and fathers have rejected. Their parents are not dead, they've just rejected their children in favor of other things. :(
One thing is for certain, our Father in heaven never rejects us. He always loves us instead. He has our best interest in mind, even when it doesn't feel that way to us.
I believe it's made very clear in scripture that He wants to love the rejected through us. It might be little children, it might be the handicapped or elderly, or it might just be a little goat. Just think about all that little goat taught me in one trip to the mailbox--and I'm not even her "moma".
Friday, January 6, 2012
I'm on a Diet, sort of...
Well, in the past year and a half I've gained TWENTY pounds. I have also discovered in that time that I am definitely an emotional eater--if I'm not emotional before I eat, I am afterward!
Anyway, I prayed and prayed about it, because I don't know about all of you but I can't do anything with my addictions in my own strength, and food is an addiction for me. I am not a person who just eats because they're hungry. I eat when I'm bored, when something looks or smells like I might wanna eat it or when I am stressed or sad, or happy or mad, lazy...sheesh.
The Lord has given me an answer to prayer by allowing me to be freer from the draw of food.
(Just a little aside, has anyone seen Over the Hedge and really listened to Bruce Willis sing his little song about food? What a SMART racoon!)
I have lost 10 pounds since November 13, completely by the grace of God. :) I need to lose twenty more to be at an optimum size for health. (Did you know that just TEN pounds overweight is enough to cause diabetes?)
I have cut back on my meat, dairy and grains all but eliminating them. I still have dark chocolate treats pretty much everyday, but they are low calorie and expensive. (The cost alone helps me to limit dramatically!) I am eating mostly vegetables, beans and fruits now and I love it. Everything is very flavorful and satisfying. Seriously.
As I read for encouragement and motivation, I find that I am eating a pretty healthy diet. The more vegetables you eat the better off you are physically--as long as they are not saturated in dressings and sauces.
I would encourage you to read a book about regaining health this year. You might be surprised by what you find. I would recommend anything by Joel Fuhrman or Jordan Rubin for sure, and if you are sick already, George Malkmus at Hallelujah Acres. Although nobody agrees on everything by any means, the keys to good health seem to be eating, breathing and sleeping well and exercizing your body.
The exercize program I am using is "Fifteen Minutes a Day" with Teresa Tapp. Check her out at t-tapp.com. I LOVE the program! It makes me feel better, works, and it's fast. It is actually less than 15 minutes.
Well, I hope to encourage by this post as always! Go out there and change your life for the better through prayer, moderation and diligence....we all need to I imagine.
Anyway, I prayed and prayed about it, because I don't know about all of you but I can't do anything with my addictions in my own strength, and food is an addiction for me. I am not a person who just eats because they're hungry. I eat when I'm bored, when something looks or smells like I might wanna eat it or when I am stressed or sad, or happy or mad, lazy...sheesh.
The Lord has given me an answer to prayer by allowing me to be freer from the draw of food.
(Just a little aside, has anyone seen Over the Hedge and really listened to Bruce Willis sing his little song about food? What a SMART racoon!)
I have lost 10 pounds since November 13, completely by the grace of God. :) I need to lose twenty more to be at an optimum size for health. (Did you know that just TEN pounds overweight is enough to cause diabetes?)
I have cut back on my meat, dairy and grains all but eliminating them. I still have dark chocolate treats pretty much everyday, but they are low calorie and expensive. (The cost alone helps me to limit dramatically!) I am eating mostly vegetables, beans and fruits now and I love it. Everything is very flavorful and satisfying. Seriously.
As I read for encouragement and motivation, I find that I am eating a pretty healthy diet. The more vegetables you eat the better off you are physically--as long as they are not saturated in dressings and sauces.
I would encourage you to read a book about regaining health this year. You might be surprised by what you find. I would recommend anything by Joel Fuhrman or Jordan Rubin for sure, and if you are sick already, George Malkmus at Hallelujah Acres. Although nobody agrees on everything by any means, the keys to good health seem to be eating, breathing and sleeping well and exercizing your body.
The exercize program I am using is "Fifteen Minutes a Day" with Teresa Tapp. Check her out at t-tapp.com. I LOVE the program! It makes me feel better, works, and it's fast. It is actually less than 15 minutes.
Well, I hope to encourage by this post as always! Go out there and change your life for the better through prayer, moderation and diligence....we all need to I imagine.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
All of Me
As my friend Darlene was working on the decor for the little girls' room I realized that I had not done it yet because it symbolized some level of permanence in my mind. I have been scared of them leaving and scared of them staying. I realized, too, that it was time for me to make up my mind about what we would do if their mom doesn't get them back.
It was past time for me to give them all my heart no matter what it might cost me in the future. You see, although I love them, I had not allowed myself to love them with a reckless love. The fact remains that they are not ours. The other fact is that as their fostering parents they NEED for us to love them that way no matter how much it costs us...ME. After all, if we don't give them what they need, who will? Who will?
Today I was listening to "All of Me" by Matt Hammitt and I realized that he was speaking my fears and the change of heart I've had since Christmas. I'd like to share those lyrics with you here:
Afraid to love
Something that could break
Could I move on
If you were torn away?
And I'm so close to what I can't control
I can't give you half my heart
And pray He makes you whole
You're gonna have all of me
You're gonna have all of me
'Cause you're worth every falling tear
You're worth facing any fear
You're gonna know all my love
Even if it's not enough
Enough to mend our broken hearts
But giving you all of me is where I'll start
I won't let sadness steal you from my arms
I won't let pain keep you from my heart
I'll trade the fear of all that I could lose
For every moment I share with you
Heaven brought you to this moment, it's too wonderful to speak
You're worth all of me, you're worth all of me
So let me recklessly love you, even if I bleed
You're worth all of me, you're worth all of me
So, "it's where I'll start". Please pray for me/us, but especially THEM.
It was past time for me to give them all my heart no matter what it might cost me in the future. You see, although I love them, I had not allowed myself to love them with a reckless love. The fact remains that they are not ours. The other fact is that as their fostering parents they NEED for us to love them that way no matter how much it costs us...ME. After all, if we don't give them what they need, who will? Who will?
Today I was listening to "All of Me" by Matt Hammitt and I realized that he was speaking my fears and the change of heart I've had since Christmas. I'd like to share those lyrics with you here:
Afraid to love
Something that could break
Could I move on
If you were torn away?
And I'm so close to what I can't control
I can't give you half my heart
And pray He makes you whole
You're gonna have all of me
You're gonna have all of me
'Cause you're worth every falling tear
You're worth facing any fear
You're gonna know all my love
Even if it's not enough
Enough to mend our broken hearts
But giving you all of me is where I'll start
I won't let sadness steal you from my arms
I won't let pain keep you from my heart
I'll trade the fear of all that I could lose
For every moment I share with you
Heaven brought you to this moment, it's too wonderful to speak
You're worth all of me, you're worth all of me
So let me recklessly love you, even if I bleed
You're worth all of me, you're worth all of me
So, "it's where I'll start". Please pray for me/us, but especially THEM.
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