Merry Christmas!

I've always considered myself a pretty happy and fulfilled person, but I also always realized that there was something detrimentally important that was missing, never quite knowing what it was. Until yesterday. Yesterday was the day my mom gave me the amazing quilt that not only completed my room, but also that distant yearning within my heart! Thanks Ma, for fulfilling my life.

Oh, and I changed my mind about Christmas. It's actually not about the presents at all. It's about having a day wherein you can stuff just as much chocolate, Spinach dip and soda pop in you belly as you can, and then waiting a few hours till you're not full anymore, and doing it again! No, I'm just kiddin'. I'm SO grateful Jesus came to earth so I can live a life full of hope and joy in His salvation.

Somewhere around the first of December, Madalyne and Mark made this gingerbread house. Malachi was ready to eat it as soon as it was done, but Madalyne was a strict (and I mean STRICT) policeman to prevent that. She managed to keep both Mark and Malachi from eating even one piece of candy or crumb of gingerbread until Christmas Eve! And boy did they enjoy every bite of that nasty, stale house!

Yeah, it's true that I only took 3 pictures of our whole Christmas. My camera is STILL lost, so I've been having to use the family's. It's just not the same. Not the same at all.

Forescore and seven years ago was the last time I posted any pictures, so I intend to do that now. I didn't get any pictures of the really deep, pretty snow (because I lost my camera), but last week when it snowed I decided to make a snowman, and he only turned out to be 1 foot high, so I named him Baby Frosty. (Those orange things on the ground are the remains of his nose I ripped up in frustration after failing to succeed in grafting it to his head)

Now I just think this looks cool, even if I'm not a professional photographer!

Now, I realize that almost all my pix are of Malachi, but nobody else in our family got spaghetti all over their face and then hammed it up even more with the dorky expression!

I didn't post a picture of the back because he had nothing else on underneath! (Nobody else in our family does THAT either!)

The world's HUGEST tomato:

Our fantastic fort!

rewards, wether ya like 'em or not!

Have you noticed how most parents get their kids to help with jobs? It’s usually by promising them a reward. When my little brother Mark was younger, I could get him to do absolutely anything for a piece of candy. I remember one day several years ago, the two of us were playing together and I told him that I would give him a piece of candy if he kissed my feet, and he did! Now that he’s older, Mark isn’t quite so desperate for candy anymore, but he will do almost anything for computer time or time with his friends. Rewards aren’t simply incentives for children either. Adults go to work faithfully so they will be rewarded with money when they are done. I think God realizes this too, because He offers rewards for our spiritual life. He knows that if He tells us that if we are peacemakers, we will inherit the kingdom of God, and that makes us want to be peacemakers. (Sometimes it doesn't look like God is giving us a reward, because our enemies still hate us, even when we love and pray for them. But God often rewards us simply by assuring us that He's pleased with what we did.)

Daniel was accustomed to hearing from the Lord. When Darius had a dream that he didn’t know the meaning to, God gave Daniel the interpretation of it, and when a different king saw strange writing on the wall (written by God), Daniel heard from the Lord what it meant. And yet, one day, he experienced a vision that gave him so much awe and fear that he was terrified and his skin turned white, as he tremblingly fell on his face to the ground. It was Gabriel, the angel, and the word he spoke to him was this: “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words” (Daniel 10:12). Then, he proceeded to give him a prophecy for the future. So he was saying that the very reason he was even there, speaking to Daniel, telling him not to be afraid, was because God had heard his words, and had seen that Daniel had been humbling himself before God, seeking to understand His ways. Now all his work had paid off. In a way, this was his reward.

However, in Hosea, God tells his people that because they have turned away to other things and forgotten Him, He will “…punish them for their ways, and reward them their deeds” (Hosea 4:9). This is a completely different kind of reward. These people have not done what He told them to do, and He is “rewarding” them by punishing them.

Now here’s my admonition: If you are doing something God is telling you to do, but it’s really hard, or you have been waiting for something He’s promised you, but it seems to be taking too long, remember that whatever you choose to do, He will give you a reward. For example, if you endure temptation, you will receive a crown of life, and if you fear Him and obey His commands, you will become wise. But if you give up and follow after something else, He will punish you. God doesn’t just make us do things because they are hard, He makes us do them so that we will be able to receive a good reward, which will cause us to be much happier in the end.

More Than It Is

What kinds of things grab your attention? Now, I’m not talking about just any old thing like a person on the street wearing funny clothes, or an interesting movie, I’m talking about something that seizes your mind and fascinates you for a LONG period of time. Something eye-catching, mind-snatching, and sleep forbidding! When I ponder this query, I think of one thing that is plain and simple: hilarious things. I absolutely thrive on finding things that truly amuse me, whether it’s making a funny accent, reading credits on movies to find wacky names, knock-knock jokes, or regular old funny things with friends. Now other people who don’t really care about that kind of stuff would be interested in other things like various hobbies. Perhaps fishing. I’ve seen folks do that for hours! Or shopping. I’ve seen still more people who do that for hours! Reading is another one on the list. You ask people what kinds of things they do in their free time, and they begin to list off things similar to the list above. People’s hobbies are what they focus on, and are what a lot of their extra time is spent in doing.

But today I read a verse in the Bible that literally made me set the book down and just sit there and stare for a few minutes. It talked about Jesus ascending into heaven, and it said that after He left, “...the disciples were looking steadfastly toward heaven.” After I read that, I was forced to ask: Am I looking steadfastly toward heaven??? Well, if the Bible tells us that that’s what the disciples were doing, then what kinds of things did they do to make God say that? Throughout chapter two of Acts, it mentions that they were constantly witnessing, preaching to the people, meeting together with believers, praying, and taking communion together. I don’t know that I don’t quite meet that noble conglomeration of things. Sure, I read my Bible every day, have lots of Christian friends, pray, and take communion once a week, but how many of us can really say that we sit down for hours at a time reading the Bible, seize every chance we have to witness, and continue steadfastly in prayer?

It’s something that is definitely more important that anything else in life—more important than playing the guitar, or hanging out with friends. I mean, what are we even on the earth for? It’s not to accomplish a lot or have a good time (of course we all know that, but sometimes we don’t act like we know it). Our purpose, as people who have been bought with an expensive price, is to know Jesus more and more and more, and to do what He tells us.

So let’s not make friends or hobbies or work a strong priority. Let’s replace that stuff that we think we need and make God such a strong priority that our eyes are steadfastly looking toward heaven!

The Modern Sacrifice

We often read about long ago when the Jews went through extreme rituals for sacrificing to the Lord. They had the burnt offering, the sin offering, the peace offering, and so many more. In fact, Ezekiel 46:23 tells them, “You shall daily make a burnt offering to the Lord…you shall prepare it every morning.” Whenever I read this, it makes me feel unmitigated gratefulness that Jesus has made the ultimate sacrifice, and that I am not required to do all that.

But sometimes I get an “off the hook” attitude. I tend to forget that although I’m not required to give God a burnt offering every day, there are other sacrifices He asks me to make. He says to present my body as a living sacrifice by not conforming to the world (Romans 12:1-2), and to offer up the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Psalm 116:17). These are just a couple things.

I’d like to just think about what a Jewish man’s day would look like during the time of Moses. The man would wake up in the morning, go outside, and collect the family’s manna for his wife to cook. After he eats breakfast, he goes out behind his tent to where the animals are, and goes straight to the area where he has placed all the perfect ones. Maybe he calls it the ‘Sacrifice Section’ or something. So he picks out a little sheep, and goes through the process of sheering it, then butchering it, then gathering all the required parts for the sacrifice. Putting it in a bag, he walks about a mile over to the tabernacle, where the priest offers it to the Lord. By the time he gets home, it’s lunchtime, and after that he “goes to work,” probably sewing curtains for the tabernacle. In the evening, he comes home again, but as dinner is finishing, he remembers that today is Wednesday—his day to give his weekly sacrifice. It takes him until late at night to finish, and as he walks home he makes a mental note to remember that sometime this month he will need to do his monthly offering, and also that the yearly offering is coming up soon.

This man’s life is practically consumed the Lord’s offerings (I did not mention the fact that he sacrifices separately for his wife and children’s sins as well). He is focused on serving the Lord. He didn’t have a chance to think he was “off the hook.” I shouldn’t think that either. A few questions to ask myself are, Is my life consumed with offering up sacrifices to God? Am I focused on serving God every day of my life? If not, what can I do to get that way? Even though our salvation is a free gift, God doesn’t want us to live a lazy life, He wants our thoughts and actions to be totally concentrated on His will.

Leave the Testing for the Teacher

The Israelites experienced some of God’s first miracles that He did in all history of mankind. And those miracles were amazing! Besides that, they were practically a daily occurrence for them. In Egypt, they saw the 10 plagues, and the Red Sea parted in half. Their very existence thrived on God’s miraculous provision all throughout their years in the wilderness, with the bitter waters at Meribah turning sweet, and the water coming out of the rock, and the nations opposing them being defeated.

But despite all that, they continued to question God day after day. When they got hungry, they complained to God so He sent them manna. When they got tired of manna, they grumbled and God sent them quail. When God promised them Canaan, they said it was too hard to get. They just kept testing God, even though they were almost daily experiencing the incredible works of the Lord!

Psalm 95:9 says, “When your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they saw my work.”

That really displeased God. The verse before it tells us why God didn’t want them to test and try Him. It says, “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers….” God is saying that when they questioned Him, and tested Him during the ‘day of trial’ (or ‘hard times’), that caused them to develop hard hearts, and bring them to rebellion. When we do the same thing, those are steps to becoming hard-hearted and rebellious like the Israelites were. In the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and all those prophets, we read over and over again how God pleads with them not to be hard-hearted, and punishes them because of their rebellious hearts. And yet, if we let it, it can easily become a habit to always test God when something goes wrong.

Make it a goal not to test God. When you feel like circumstances are just NOT the way they should be, praise God, ask Him for strength, tell Him you’re having a hard time—anything like that. But don’t test Him. Don’t let yourself become hard-hearted.

A 1930's get-together

It's the day when all the 30's celebrities come together and.......eat! I don't have any pictures of the food, but I have the people.


Marilyn Monroe


We told Brandon Groucho Marx was a creepy little man, so this is his creepy man look.


Jimmie Hendrix is the one who actually killed Jerry Oilman. I can beleive it by the look of him.



Forget what history tells us--Jimmie and Groucho were great friends with Fred Austaire!




Here's everybody! (Rita Hayworth, Bruce Lee, John Wayne, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball...)

Knocking Filling and Opening

I read two verses yesterday that seemed very similar to me. The first is Psalm 81:10, which says, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it,” and the second is a very familiar verse, Matthew 7:7. “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” These are both beautiful promises, and I have seen several times in the past where God has fulfilled them.

Some of our family’s friends, the Lucases, were missionaries in Mexico for several years. One day, they felt like God wanted them to invite 2 families over for dinner. But they had practically no food in the house, certainly not enough to feed all the people that were there! So Jim prayed. Pretty soon there was a knock on the door. One of their neighbors had brought them a watermelon! After they cut that up, and while everyone was eating it, somebody else knocked on the door and said, “We felt like we should give you this bread and this soup.” God rewarded them for their trust in Him, and provided for the need they had!

A while ago, I was going to babysit some kids, but I was pretty stressed that morning before I went, because I always had a hard time babysitting these kids. They never liked any of my ideas for things to do, and I didn’t want to go babysit a bunch of bored kids all day. So I prayed about it, asking God to help me and giving my day to Him, and I ended up being able to think of some ideas that the kids really liked, and we had a lot of fun that day. I think God gave me those ideas.

In both these instances, God’s promise was fulfilled. With Jim Lucas, he opened his mouth wide, and God filled it. With me, I knocked, and the door was opened. But if a baby doesn’t open its mouth, how can someone put food in it? If a person doesn’t knock on the door, can it be opened to them? If nobody asks for anything, they won’t get anything, and they don’t look for anything they won’t find anything. Hence, I think these two verses are saying something a little more to us, than just the fact that God promises these things to us. We need to not just skip over the beginning of those verses. Knock… ask… seek….

So what are some ways we can ‘open our mouths’ or ‘knock on the door’? Well, Mr. Lucus had to ask God to fill his need, and I had to give my day over to Him and ask for help. There are lots of other things too. If you want God to give you wisdom for a situation, read Bible verses about wisdom, or stories about wise people in the Bible.

These are just some things to think about if you have a problem or need or anything like that. Imagine God saying to you, “Open your mouth and I will fill it. Seek and you will find. Knock and I will open the door for you.”

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

I got this from Melody's blog. It's supposed to be celebrities you look like.

Oh dear.

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family name origins - Genelogy

The New Nombre

When a person believes on the Lord and is saved, they become a Christian. There are also several other things we call ourselves, such as believers, saints, the body of Christ, the family of God, and probably several other things I can't call to mind right now. But there's also another name for us that we don't hear very often, and that is Sought Out. I found this in Isaiah 62:12, that says, "And they shall call them a holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and thou shalt be called; Sought Out, a city not forsaken." We have been redeemed by the Lord. Jesus paid a HUGE price to save us! Besides the years He spent on earth being rejected and living in a lowly position, His death is almost unfathomable. He was whipped with 40 lashes, which is almost murder in itself, because that was the absolute maximum amount you could beat someone without them dying. And then after He carried His own cross for a long way, He had huge nails driven through His wrists and feet that attached Him to a crude, splintery cross. Then the soldiers sat at the foot of that cross to enjoy a game of cards while they waited for Him to die so they could go home.

And because of this huge price, we are supposed to be holy. When I try to tell little kids about God's holiness, I define it as "absolutely perfect, not sinning at all." I think most of us already know that we're supposed to be holy too, so we don't do a lot of the things the world does that we know to be wrong. But I think we also oftentimes overlook certain areas of that 'not sinning at all' part. We tend to look at the "little" sins like getting angry, or being proud, or complaining, as rather trivial and we don't really feel that bad when we do them. But God hates sin, and it grieves Him very much when we commit even the "smallest" one. And yet, sometimes it's just so hard to remember not to do those things, especially if they are a habit in our lives.

That's where the name Sought Out comes in. When I hear the name of something, an image immediately comes to my mind. If I hear the name 'elephant' I immediately get an image in my mind of a massive, grey land animal bearing four legs, big ears, and two thick tusks. Why? Because ever since I was a little tiny kid, I have seen pictures about elephants, my mom has told me various facts about elephants, I've seen elephants in the zoo, I've read about elephants, I've thought about elephants, and I've learned about elephants in movies. They're kind of a part of my life, just like bees and flowers and paper and computers. Now we can make the name Sought Out a part of our lives, so that whenever we think of it or say it, we'll remember the verse that says we are redeemed of the Lord, we are a city not forsaken (Jesus is with us all the time to help us), and we need to be holy.

So my challenge to you is this: every time you hear the word ‘Christian,’ you remember what Christ has done for you. And every time you call yourself a believer, you think about what you believe in, and if you remember our new name, Sought Out, you think about the price Jesus paid for you, and your responsibility to remember that you are a city not forsaken, and the things you need to do (no matter how small) to be holy.

September 18, 2008

While I dead-headed hydrangeas today, Malachi thought they were so much fun, and he throwing them around and playing with them, and laying in them.

Who would've thought the death of hundreds of beautiful flowers would make for such a fun occasion?

Inspecting a dead hydrangea

and he was totally stoked about helping me clean them up!

I've put on a few pounds since you last saw me........

Banishing Backsliding

Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived. When he became king, God said He would give him anything he wished for, and Solomon asked for wisdom, so that he could be a good ruler to his people. For the first half of his life, he did some great things for the Lord. He built an incredible temple for Him, he judged his people righteously and prudently. But the end of his life, he had completely turned away from the Lord and was serving other gods.

I think this happens to a lot of people. They will be following after God and living good lives, and later in life, have completely turned their backs on Him. I’ve seen it in many people I know that are close to me, and have heard lots more stories of others. What causes someone who falls away from the Lord to do that?

It’s called backsliding.

It’s what the Israelites did all through the Old Testament. They would be following God and keeping His commandments for a while, and then pretty soon, they were going to the idols in other countries and totally living in sin. Jeremiah talks about this a lot, and he’s the one who calls it backsliding, which God portrays as being very serious. He quite often makes known His displeasure in the way they have completely forsaken Him by proclaiming harsh judgments on them.

But you see, backsliding, as horrible as it is, is not just something that we see in the Israelites or the people that have turned their backs on God. It’s something that all of us do (whether we want to admit it or not). I’d like to ask the question: How did Solomon end up the way he did? I mean, he couldn’t have just woke up one morning and decided he didn’t want to walk with God anymore! He started by marrying wives from different countries—something God had told him absolutely NOT to do. So he started going away from the Lord by not following the commandments God made. He kept making little decisions (I’ll just marry this girl from Egypt, and build this other girl a temple for her god, and I’ll just worship this idol a tiny bit…) every day.

And if we’re not careful, that same thing can happen to us. If we decide to skip reading our Bibles for a few days, or stop praying so often, pretty soon our Bible reading will become more and more infrequent and we will lose any interest in prayer or fellowship. Sometimes I look back at my life and remember how a few months or years ago, I had felt really passionate or convicted about various things, and I realize that as time has gone by, I’ve forgotten about them, and they don’t matter to me anymore. Doing things like this can either weaken our relationship with God, or, if it goes on for too long, they can destroy it.

But just like God pleads with the Israelites saying, “Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings,” (Jeremiah 3:22), He’s pleading with you to repent of your own backsliding (maybe you’ve gotten lazy about your relationship with someone and need to spend more time with them, or have been getting angry a lot, or have been lazy about doing things you need to get done, or have watched movies you didn’t used to let yourself watch) and use the strength He promises to give you in order to change and get back on track.

Now don’t get discouraged when you see an area you need to improve on, decide to change, and then several days or weeks go by, and you still find yourself struggling with it. That happened to the Israelites too. There are several verses throughout Jeremiah where either Jeremiah or the people are asking God to forgive their backslidings, and help them to do better. One of them is in chapter 14. It says:
“O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You.”
This verse shows that they had obviously tried and failed several times too, but the key thing is to go to God every time you find yourself failing or backsliding, and re-make that commitment to do better.

Someday Soon, The saga of Miriam Kercher and Hannah Swayze's Future (Written by Miriam Kercher and Hannah Swayze)

Chapter 1
A Day by the River

“Weeeeee!” Miriam’s raisin-like, shriveled old body went flying into the river.” Hannah, I think you finally had a good idea. It took you 55 years, but you’ve finally done it.” But Hannah was to busy searching for her dentures in the murky waters to hear her. They played in silence for several minutes when Miriam gloated yet again. “You should feel this mud over here! It’s great! Why, this sure beats sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for hours while they---“

“Miriam, you maleficent, malingering Kercher! Don’t be saying that aloud or else somebody’s going to overhear you talking about that.”

“Huh?”

“Ooooh, never mind. Just hesh, then alright?” They both quickly forgot the close call they had just experienced, and carried on with their toes-in-mud-digging, swimming, and fishing-for-dentures-ing. Soon it was getting late, and two disheveled, yet jubilant old women headed for the back door of their house, eager to find some chocolate milk. But before they reached for the door handle, Clementine, Hannah’s oldest daughter stepped out.

“Mom! You were supposed to be taking Miriam to the doctor to get her pace-maker put in. Don’t you think it’s time you grew up? After all…you are my mother.” Hannah smiled a toothless grin, and before she could reply, Nella gasped. “Mom! Where’s your teeth? We just bought that set!”

Pointing a long bony finger at her comrade, Hannah accused, “It was her fault. She was up in the dogwood trying to re-tie the tire swing when she fell down onto my head. After I finally got her clawing, gnarling self off my shoulders, they had fallen into the creek.”

“Well,” Miriam defended, “if she hadn’t been accusing me of being a sissy I wouldn’t of been up there in the first place. Hannah Hishbod! You’re a—“ But they could no longer contain themselves and broke out in a delighted cackle. Nella simply shook her head and herded them inside for the third bath of the day. After they had sipped a cup of chocolate raspberry tea and a three hour nap, it was time for bed.

Chapter 2
“Our evil plan is working.”


“Oh no! No no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! There’s NO possible way I’m going to fall for the ‘going quilting at the senior center’ trickery. After all these years of you two refusing to let me teach you how to quilt…” She sighed. “I’m not that stupid.” So Clementine grounded them from leaving the house for 3 days.

A few hours later, Hannah could be found in her rocking chair, newspaper over the face, snoring, when Clementine and her very loving and affectionate husband Moses walked into the living room. “Honey, I’d love to take you to the Bahamas for our Anniversary, but who could we persuade to watch the kids?”

“Well what about Terry? She’s a nice girl, Sweetheart.”

“Yes, I know she is, Snookers, but for a whole week?” I don’t know if she can handle that. After all—“

“Shhhhh! You’re going to wake up my mom, Pookums!”

“Sorry. I don’t know what we’re going to do, Bitsel, but I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

They shook hands lovingly and then left the room. As soon as they were gone, the newspaper flew off Hannah’s face onto the ground and she was running (or hobbling) as fast as she could toward Miriam’s room. As they consulted in whispered tones, Hannah exulted, “you’ll never guess what I just found out!”
DAH DAH DAH DAH

Chapter 3
Chewing for Two?

Pound, pound, pound “Hey you sniveling old women! You let me out of here! I’m going to tell Moses and Clementine about this! Heeeeeeeeeelp!”

“Terry, be quiet in there or we’ll have to duct tape yer mouth.” Turning to Miriam Hannah groaned. “You’re lucky you can’t hear. That girl’s as crazy as a coot.”

“Ey?”

“Nothing. You almost done chewing that gum?”

“Well yes, but it’s lot harder when your chewing for two, and it’s mixed with caramel and popcorn at the same time. I still think we should try my blender idea.”

Triumphantly following Hannah’s reluctant permission, Miriam shuffled over to the cupboard where she took out the blender and began pouring in the ingredients: bubble gum, caramel squares, popcorn, orange soda, and a tad of milk. “Here’s you milkshake, Hanney.”

Blissfully sipping her drink, the recipient of this delicious beverage commented, “You know, we forgot to feed Terry.”

“Oh yeah. After we put the kids to bed at 5, I completely forgot about her. I better go get the tortillas. Too bad that’s the only thing that will fit underneath the door. Oh well. All the less work for me.” She chuckled softly to herself, as she shoved the girl’s meal under the door. “Be good in there, Terry or we’ll eat the tortillas ourselves. Just be grateful you’re in the room with the toilet. We still have to wear our DEPENDS.” They heard nothing but a sob and much sniffling for a reply.

***More episodes from the Being Old While Staying Young Publishing Company are soon to come!

What's Underneath it All?

Isaiah chapter 4 gives a very detailed description of the judgment of the Israelites for their sin. It speaks of how their crops will be destroyed, their land overthrown, and they will be taken into captivity. As I read about all these punishments, they seem very tragic and unappealing. But the verses that really seem horrible to me and cause me to shudder are the ones that describe what will happen to the women. God uses 8 verses to list one thing after another that He is going to strip from them. This list includes anklets, necklaces, bracelets, chains, mufflers, bonnets, ornaments, headbands, earrings, nose rings, outfits, mantles, wimples, pins, glasses, fancy cloth, hoods, and veils. He says they will be made bald, that their beauty will become burning, their sweet smells will be a stink, and they will be in mourning. I look at this list and can’t help but imagine myself in this predicament. Bald, completely devoid of any jewelry or beauty-enhancers, wearing the plainest of all clothes, mourning, and just utterly unattractive. And when I see myself that way, it makes me wonder what people would then really see in me.

When someone looks at me, they don’t just see me-the real me, that is. There are some things about me that sort of cover me up. People look at me and before I even say a word, they see my appearance—my clothes, my hair, my face…etc. Then after I begin speaking to them, they hear my voice, they hear me laugh, and they can see my personality. Sometimes it takes a long time for them to actually see way down deep to the real me. The me that reacts to various situations, and the me that deals with hardships or temptations.

When the Bible tells something, it does not waste any extra space on superfluous words. It says exactly the main facts and nothing extra. But here in this chapter, God uses eight verses just to list all these ‘beauty’ things that will be taken from the women. I think this fact can show us something about how important these outward things had become to the women. It looks like they became a little too caught up in their fancy hair-do’s, and their pretty dresses. After all, back in Bible times when Isaiah was prophesying, the only women who wore excessive amounts of jewelry—especially ankle jewelry—were the women who were considered flirtatious or inappropriate, and this particular section of scripture is the only place in the whole Bible that actually uses the word ‘anklet.’ Here, many, many, many different forms of jewelry are mentioned.

God saw that underneath all their fancy jewelry and beautiful things, these women were hiding something truly disgusting. We need to be careful that we are not using our appearances or charm or to hide what we truly are underneath it all. We need to carefully examine ourselves to make sure that if all those outward things were stripped away from us, we would not be left with something repulsive.

Bible Clubs

One of the reasons it's been such a long time since I've posted anything is because I was at a camp called Operation Eternal Impact. Me and a bunch of my friends went to some apartment complexes where there's pretty rough neighborhoods, and did Bible clubs for the kids. I didn't take very many pictures, but this is what I did take.



This is Leonesha. She's this really loud, funny kid, and she kept making us paint random words on her face. Like on her forehead it says Nana, and then later she made me paint, "I love my family" on her chin.

Alizabeth and me

Hannah and Hannah both got their faces painted matching.

For one of my stories, I brought these glasses, and then afterwards we were all playing with them and trying them on. This is Daniel.

And my own little contribution to dorkiness.......

Change

There's a Bible verse somewhere that says, "Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." I've decided to take that little passage literally and make some drastic changes to my blog. I don't exactly know why, but that black background was starting to get on my nerves with how gloomy it always looked. So, feeling in my heart that this was the right thing to do, I put the pedal to the medal (to borrow the coloquialism) and here it is!
Woot! Yippee! Hooray! Jumpin' Jihoodles! Hazzah!
How do you like it?

Just a teeny little thought for the day...

Our first and most important command is to love the Lord. The reason a lot of people don’t like reading Leviticus very much is because they can’t find anything to daily apply to their lives. But I don’t think that’s the purpose of Leviticus. Its purpose is to show us how holy God is, and to increase our appreciation for His sacrifice. So it’s okay if we go a couple days without a new application for our lives as long as we have increased our love for God by seeing salvation in a new light, or recognizing His holiness because we are getting to know Him better, and that is the whole point for reading the Bible in the first place. Yes, serving Him can increase our love for Him, but sometimes we just need to get to know God better, and not forget about our original purpose from the beginning.

A Common Bond (and some other jumbled thoughts)

I’ve often looked at the men in the Bible, all the “greats,” like David, Moses, Job, Daniel, and others, and have really admired them for their amazing hearts for God. I always find myself wanting to be like them, but feel like there’s just no way that I can even begin to match up to them because of how godly they are. But recently I decided to make a list of all the things David did, that made him so pleasing to God. The list included things like trust, integrity, righteousness, fear of the Lord, and many others. But as I read about different people in the Bible, I noticed that there are a lot of similarities between all those great men. Job showed the exact same trust in God during his trials, as David in his. Moses showed that obedience, and Daniel exhibited similar integrity and praise for God. Each one was definitely different, possessing his own qualities and struggles, but I think there must have been one important, core thing in common between all of them, and also all the other faithful guys throughout God’s Word. I don’t specifically have one word or adjective to describe it perfectly, but I think that core thing that gave these men the strength to do righteous things was the relationship they had with their God in the beginning. Now, I said “their God” on purpose because they really did make Him their God. You can sense it in the things they say (whether in their prayers or the things they said to others) that there’s something in that relationship that goes really, really deep. They love God very much. God is like an old friend to them, someone that has been there by their side wherever they’ve gone, whatever they’ve done, and He’s been teaching them things all along the way. They’ve had to learn hard lessons and endure hard things, but God has taken them through it all, and become very precious to them.

That’s why Daniel could not stop praying to God even as he was about to be consumed by a den-full of lions. That’s why David could praise God, even when his very life was threatened by Saul, and why he could go to the Lord for comfort when all his men were angry with him. It’s why Moses could continue leading the complaining, unfaithful Israelites through that hot, miserable desert his whole life, and why Job could sit in the dark room of his house, in severe pain and misery, with the sense of losing his possessions and his ten children. On top of that, he had to deal with (what used to be) his friends despising and criticizing him, and he could still say “I know that my redeemer lives.”

So I guess my reason for saying all this, is that I’m probably not the only one who’s wanted to be like Job or David, and felt very hopelessly like it was impossible, that I was totally inadequate, because these guys are just so strong. I mean, they made it all the way to the Bible, after all! But I would say, don’t lose hope. Try to study them and find the things in the beginning of their lives that may have started to bring about that beautiful friendship with God.

Here are a few things that I’ve thought of to get started: Daniel was wrenched away from his home, his family, and future, and brought into captivity in Babylon. Very soon after he arrived there, he was asked to eat meat and other things God had told him not to. Guys like meat. It smells good, it tastes chewy, and it’s satisfying, ever so much more satisfying than lettuce. Or green beans. But he overcame that. He found a way to obey God, and I’m sure that helped to bring him close to God.

David’s brothers, all 7 of them, went to war. Isn’t it every boy’s dream to go to war, and be noble, and fight for your country? But David had to stay home with his parents and watch the sheep! How un-noble is that?! But he used those hours and hours of being alone in the meadow to play his harp, and play songs to the Lord. I imagine that was a time where his relationship with God really grew.

Moses grew up a Hebrew boy in an Egyptian’s house. As he grew older, he had to watch his people suffer by the Egyptians, which we know was difficult for him because he killed one of them in revenge. He ran away to the wilderness where he became the son-in-law of a shepherd for 40 years. God used this time to prepare him to be a leader to his people.

And Job uses his time of riches and his great bounty to develop his integrity. The Bible says he is righteous, upright, and shuns evil. He even makes sacrifices for his children, which is another thing that demonstrates his relationship to God before his horrible trial whams him.

Now I hope that, after you have looked at more people’s lives and learned how they developed that relationship, that you will work on using whatever situations you might have—whether you are dissatisfied, bored, afraid, unfairly treated, or everything is going just fine—to develop yours, because I think it is actually very possible for us to do the same things David did, as long as we have that deep and precious relationship with God. We need to make Him “our” God.

Happy Woody Wagon Day!!

Unfortunatly, I'm a day late, but yesterday was Woody Wagon Day. A special day (July 19) honoring wooden wagons. I'm not making this up, I found it out on the radio. So I hope that if you own a wooden wagon, that yesterday was a great day for you, one filled with pride over the knowledge of that priveledged ownersip!

Un-tasted Soup

“Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him!” (Psalm 34:8)

“Miriam!” Maggie calls her sister, who is ever ready to try delicious edibles in order to quench her seemingly never-ending hunger. Miriam runs excitedly through the house toward the lovely smells wafting out from the kitchen. Yesterday, Maggie had a made a cherry pie, the day before that, it was frosted banana bread, before that it had been oatmeal cake… and so forth. Now, as Miriam arrives in the kitchen, a delighted smile crosses her face. She glances around for the new delectability she will be the first to try, and, as Maggie points to the stove, Miriam, still eagerly smiling, rushes over. But when she sees the bubbling pot of tomato chili, filled with squishy little green things looking somewhat like disfigured, once-upon-a-time celery, that smile downright flees from her face.” What are those?” is all she can find in her disappointed little heart to say.

Maggie coaxes and prods, for a guest is expected to arrive later that night. However, Miriam stubbornly refuses to let one drop drip past her tightly pressed lips, and returns to whatever she happens to be doing at the time. Later, when the guest comes, and they are all seated at the table ready to eat, Miriam finally partakes, which is a good thing because it turned out to be a toothsome delight. If she had not been willing to taste the food that didn’t have quite as delicious an appearance, she would have missed out on a smashing hit.

So it is with life. So many times, we see the “ugly” parts of following the Lord. For example, reading the book of Leviticus (or any other book of the bible, you aren’t particularly fond of), or going to church on Sundays rather than sleeping in, or doing an unpleasant task, or any other manner of things. And we take those things, and turn up our noses at them, refusing to take that “taste” that gets us started. So today, be encouraged to take a taste of reading that seemingly boring section of the Bible, or helping that old lady, and just see how good the Lord really is!

(Ok, so I admit, I slightly over-exaggerated the part about tasting the food, and it does feel a little weird writing about myself in third person, but it worked, didn’t it?)

Humble Verses Proud

“My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.”

Usually, when I boast, I’m trying to exude my own praises and elevate my own goodness. I tell others about what I’ve accomplished, or how amazing I am. And when I boast, causing others to be impressed with me, it makes me glad. Especially when I hear someone else praising me.

Now the humble……………….I’ve usually thought of humility as not boasting about yourself, also not thinking poorly about yourself. It’s just plain not thinking about me at all, and that’s the end. But God is saying that this goes on. It does not end there! Not thinking about yourself is only where it begins. To complete this, our humbleness boasts in the Lord. What I said about boasting earlier is what we need to do for God. We tell people about what He’s accomplished, how amazing He is, we exude His praises, and when we hear others saying nice things about God, it should gladden our hearts.

The most important thing to remember is that it’s not about me or my humility, but about God, and glorifying Him.

Mother May I

“…I have walked in thy truth” (Psalm 26: 3).


What does it mean to walk in the truth?

Well first, how do you walk? You stand up, and then begin moving your legs. They set out like a machine, rapidly crossing back and forth, going forward all the while. You take one step at a time in order to move toward your destination, and you are focused on your goal and your purpose. Sometimes you take slow, deliberate, careful steps, while other times you are running, moving those legs as fast as they’ll go, not even thinking about how it happens. There are small, baby steps, and there are big, giant ones. It always varies, depending on what kind of person you are, what sort of mood you are in, or what condition of health you possess.

Now, what is the truth? When we think of telling the truth, we would say ‘honesty,’ or ‘not telling lies,’ not being fake or phony, hiding nothing, and leaving everything out in the open. But where do we come up with that? Jesus said, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life…” (John 14:6). So Jesus is the truth (or God). Just try to compare all those things I said about truth with Jesus. It all matches up. He is honest, He doesn’t tell lies, He is not phony, and He hides nothing. He puts His will for us right out in the open, right in the pages of His Word. So following truth, would be following God’s will for us, obeying every request or command. Some examples of these commands we should follow are found in Psalm 26:

I have not sat with vain persons—people who talk about mindless things of no importance, and don’t bring glory to God.

Neither will I go in with dissemblers—people who are destructive, cause dissention, and eliminate peace.

I have hated the congregation of evildoers—don’t enjoy wicked company. Hang out with righteous people who walk with the Lord.

And will not sit with the wicked—sitting might be an example of laziness. When laziness and wickedness are together, gossip, mocking, and other wicked things are present.

I will wash my hands in innocence—keep the commands of the Lord, don’t break your conscience, be innocent of all wrong.

Hooray! We now know how to walk, we know some of the steps we should take in order to follow God better, and we know that God is truth. So put ‘em together! (Bippity-boppity-boo!) Remember, I said that when you walk, there’s always a goal in mind. You might say “I want to cross the street,” so you walk there. Walking in the truth means that truth is our ultimate goal, so we take steps—sometimes big, sometimes small—to get there, keeping that goal in mind all the while.

I think of the game Mother, May I. A line of kids stand at the beginning of the field, while the “mother” stands at the other side. The childrens’ objective is to reach the other side first, but they can’t get there without the direction of the mother.
“Mabel, take 2 scissor steps.”
“Mother, may I?”
“You may.”
And Mabel’s scissor steps commence. The mother moves down the line, giving each child a new command. And each one, with the permission of the mother, moves forward till they reach her.

The children aren’t the ones who make the decisions for where to go. The mother does. Or in our case, the Father does. God tells us different steps we have to take to accomplish our objective.
“Miriam, stop sitting with vain persons.”
I remind myself that my goal is walking in the truth, and then I obey.


So the key to walking in the truth (summing it up) is to keep your focus on God, listen for His commands, and then make steps of obedience.

Creating Contortions

I don't think I really need to say much, except

that we were having fun with Mark's book.

"Me an Rev, we both dig the Temptations" (quote from Remember the Titans)

Temptations. We all know that Satan tempts people to disobey God. We also know that his first temptation started with Eve and Adam. As much as we don’t want to think it is, temptation is something very, very strong that can rule our lives if we let it, and we usually recognize temptation because it is almost always followed by a 'stab of conscience,' as some like to call it.

I just want to look at some of Satan’s tactics (as it were) that he used on Eve, and that he’s still using today. These we must recognize if we don’t want Satan ruling our lives.
“And [the serpent] said unto the woman, ‘hath God said, “Ye shall not eat of the trees of the garden?”’”(Genesis 3:1)
Well, God told Adam in the beginning…
“Of every tree of the garden thou mayest feely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou mayest not eat of it” (Genesis 2:17).
So Satan started out by confusing Eve. He changed God’s Word around to be similar to the truth, but grossly inaccurate. Eve should have known God’s command well enough to be able to turn away the untruth by correcting the serpent with the exact command God gave her.

If you are a human, especially a Christian human that is trying to do God’s will, Satan will try this on you. He will plant thoughts in your head (yes, in your very own head, so that you think it’s actually YOU that’s thinking the thoughts) and they say something like this: “Did God really say that you could give this speech in front of everyone? Did He really say you could witness to your friend? Or pray every day? After all, you’ve failed at so many things before. So He’s wrong.” But the Bible says,
“I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
If you don’t know that scripture, you’re going to believe that God told a lie, just like Satan tried to get Eve to think God was unfair. It’s the same with any other scripture in the Bible. So know the Word of God! You will not be able to resist even this first plan of Satan if you don’t know what the Bible says!

Well, after Satan tried one thing and Eve still hadn’t sinned, he had to do something else. So he sparked off her pride. He said,
“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
He was insinuating that unless Eve ate the fruit, she would be ignorant—he was telling her that, by not eating the fruit, she was missing out on something she should have. How many times have we people thought, ‘If I don’t watch/listen/do/say/wear this, people will just think I’m an idiot” (or something to that extent)? Then we think that if we do this thing we’re tempted to do, our friends (or whoever it might be) will know we are not stupid, or annoying or something like that. This is a lie from Satan. The Bible says we are supposed to be wise to what is good and ignorant to what is evil.

I know I’ve only mentioned two things Satan uses, but these are both very common ones he uses on us every single day! Beware of them and resist them.

My Cop

Shop, shop, shop till I drop.
Through the muddy roads I sop.
And while I am shopping and sopping and dropping...
A cop bops my top and hops through the sop.
Well, my eyes sort of pop, as he flops to a stop.
His body goes plop, and he drops in that sop.
He cannot hop op.
He calls for his pop, but my wrath will not stop.
I sop where he's plopped, and poor pig slop on his cop's top.
Now he'll HAVE to chop his ugly mop!

I Want to Leave a Legacy

Today, I was reading in Psalm 13. It began with David speaking—he was petitioning God for help. It wasn’t a long psalm, in fact, it was only six verses. But as I read carefully through, trying to pick something out as my daily nugget, I just wasn’t finding anything in those first verses. But I kept on, because over the past several years of my life, I have become very acquainted with this shepherd/king’s style of writing. I’ve always been impressed with David because I know that when he writes about his hardships, he always ends them with praise to God. So, as I was reading this handful of verses, I was expectantly waiting for the last few where he poured out his praise to God. I was not disappointed. As I expected, he talked about not losing hope because he was trusting in God’s mercy, rejoicing in His salvation, and counting the blessings He had given him.

David lived thousands of years ago. But he has left behind such a powerful, powerful legacy for me, and for countless other Christians to follow. What kind of legacy do I have? I certainly do have troubles, things that can make me say, “how long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1) like David did. Sometimes I tell other people about those troubles. Sometimes I tell God about them. But when my sisters, my friends, or the Lord are patiently listening to my mournful sagas, do they expectantly wait for the praise that will flow from my mouth? Can they expect me to switch my distress and questioning that I feel into happiness because I am reminding myself of God’s mercy, His salvation, His goodness, His help, His comfort… (This list goes on and on) that He gives me?

The above list is very long, but how often do I use it? Well, I can pretty easily use it every morning after I’ve finished reading my Bible, wherein lies David’s simple, but beautiful praise to God. When my heart is uplifted and basking in God’s love, I praise Him. But while I’m going through my Bible reading, I have no trials. I’m reading about all the amazing things that happen in it. It’s later on in the day when the frustrations, the arguments, the impatience and the problems come. Then it’s terribly easy to forget about all those amazing things, and to mourn and complain when the bad bashes you and thrusts you down.

So my question is: What kind of attitude results when we feel weighed down by certain things? I pray fervently that I will learn to add praise at the end. To always, without fail, add praise. Like David, that is the legacy I want to leave.








** I Want to Leave a Legacy is a song by Nicole Nordeman. The reason I named this after her song is because I wanted to remember this stuff every time I sing the song in my head.

My Poor ol' Sprained Ankle

Yes, I know, it's rather shocking. I should have titled this post "My Tennis Ball."

My very very very very very very very FIRST post!

Hooray! This is my new blog! I am officially one of THE LAST of my siblings (ahem...Matt would be the exception) to have one. I actually decided to make this because I have a bunch of things I've written that I just wanted to put up here for people to read............and see............and look at..........and all the other things you do to the things people write!

So welcome, Miriam! (I just kinda felt like I should say that, since nobody else did :D)