winslowscalling

From Scott

2010-11-04T20:08:00.001-06:00

There is a picture on our fridge of Noah’s (my 10 year old) close friend Eli that makes me smile.

The two of them hit it off quite well since the first time they met. That is except for the first few minutes or so that we introduced them. Apparently, we had not fully explained to Noah that Eli’s Cerebral Palsy was not, in fact, a contagious disorder. As soon as we set the record straight, the two of them were pretty much inseparable when Eli visited.

In addition to a shared love for a certain character named Sponge Bob Square Pants, they both had the same sense of humor. I delighted in entertaining them with spontaneous songs about subjects that only a young boy would find humorous, much to my wife’s dismay. They were a great audience and their continual giggles and snorts only encouraged me.

It was so strange to see how Noah could carry on a conversation with Eli, who could not speak, as if there were nothing at all unusual about it. Eli’s random arm movements, radiant smile, and infectious laugh were a sort of language that they both understood.

If Noah was not standing up doing the dancing and running for them both, he was next to Eli’s chair in deep conversation or vacant observation of the guy who “lives in a pineapple under the sea”. It was one of these times that it struck me how much they looked alike, despite their obvious physical differences.

Noah, who sometimes does not make friends easily, had made an extraordinary one in Eli. He learned that a person’s value is not in their physical ability or lack thereof. He learned that “special” kids are still kids like him.

Unfortunately, Eli’s Dad had to move to another state and take Eli with him. Noah was sad, but always looked forward to hearing an update on his old chum. Noah is, if nothing else, a loyal friend. He appreciated a new picture of Eli having a birthday or just chilling out with some Sponge Bob.

Noah’s prayers always included one for Eli that God make him able to run and talk.

Today, through tears, I had to tell Noah that Eli is both running and talking with our Lord and Savior.

While we weep, we do not weep as those who have no hope.

Run In Peace little friend, until we meet again.

Radiant Smile

Resurrection

2010-10-18T09:45:00.002-06:00

I've started thinking about this ole blog recently. I kind of miss posting here. Sure, there's Facebook, but it's just not the same. I will be easing back into posting here over the next few days. Now I just need to figure out how to get pictures from my phone on blogger.

Greetings and Farewell?

2009-11-11T13:00:00.002-06:00

It has been brought to my attention that I have not updated this blog for many months. Not that I didn't know that already, but the reminder was my call to action. So do I delete, or begin posting again?

This is the question I will be pondering for the next couple of days. Decision-making is not my forte.

Ginny, please check the comments on the last post! :)

A Few More School Photos

2009-07-02T13:03:00.003-06:00

Our "Homeschool in the Woods" timeline... blank for now, but ready to go.

The Science Box- We spent a little bit of time putting together ziploc bags of supplies for each of the activities/experiments we need to do for science. I compiled a list of missing supplies at the same time... no more skipped science activities because we couldn't find the right stuff!

A small, easy to use arts and crafts box

Summertime and the livin' is easy

2009-06-19T11:15:00.007-06:00

When I proposed a two week long summer break, followed by "fun" summer school sessions, I was practically boo-ed out of town. So the kids are having their lazy summer vacation. The books have been put away. The school-morning routines will have to be re-learned, for sure. But clearing the cobwebs from their little minds in the fall just may not be necessary.

We've all been working on our Spanish. Nicholas is using typing software to learn how to type instead of peck, totally of his own accord. Noah is learning to play the melody to Greensleeves on his mandolin, even though his teacher is AWOL. Elijah is gaining proficiency in counting money through playing a Reader Rabbit computer game.

Nicholas spent several hours one day measuring and drawing to scale the layout of our home, including immovable furniture (the piano and woodstove). All other furniture was measured and added to the layout with tagboard pieces. His motivation? It looked like fun, and the next time I want to rearrange the furniture, it will save him from making unnecessary moves- since he's usually the muscle behind my madness. You can see a miniature version of his floorplan in this photo. We also realized that we can use magnets on our metal doors to hold up posters instead of using pushpins and making holes in all the walls. We've lived here for over 2 years, and I just now thought of that. Sometimes I am slow.

In preparation for learning American history next school year, we have purchased the Liberty's Kids videos. My children have been absorbed in the story of the American Revolution since, and their play reflects it. During the episode about Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Noah looked at me and asked, "Mom, is that the same Thomas Paine who was a deist?" Me: "Ummm... (consult Google)... Yes! How did you know that?" It's amazing the things they learn from The Sugar Creek Gang (the everynight bedtime story). The children also tried writing their own invisible messages after watching Liberty's kids. I found the results the next day... There was also a sticky spot on the floor where someone spilled the lemon juice and neglected to clean it up. They are still kids, of course.
I've kept myself busy making teaching aids. We've laminated fish for alphabet fishing, and made these lighthouse cards to use with math. Our first Konos lesson deals with lighthouses, so these shapes (purchased at the Dollar Tree!!!) will make for a fun way to tie math into that. I've also gotten a jump on making some necessary posters for science.

Painting is always a fun activity. I watch for discounted painting supplies when I'm out and about. These canvases were half-price at Hobby Lobby, and made for a good 1 1/2 hour project today with the outside temperatures in the 90s.

Freeze Advisory

2009-05-18T17:06:00.004-06:00

Glad to have a few extra pots, #10 cans, styrofoam cups, and empty pretzel containers on hand. *sigh*

Our First Big Fight

2009-04-16T14:34:00.002-06:00

or "A Tale of Two Roosters"

I don't remember why we thought we needed more than one rooster. I can assure you, however, that we don't need more than one.

We're not sure who is hurt worse... but we do have our favorite. The rooster above is very sweet and loving toward one particular hen. They stay together all the time, she picks his feet clean, and if someone approaches her, she squats down and scoots herself underneath him. Love.

Breaking Radio Silence

2009-04-16T09:39:00.002-06:00

Nothing has been posted here for a while. Sometimes my mind is jumbled up and so full of stuff that I can't think clearly enough to put together a cohesive sentence. And yet,today, while I have in my home a 2 year old, 3 year old, 4 year old, 5 year old, 8 year old and 12 year old... I'm feeling froggy.

The nephews came over to spend the night last night. The boys arrived late and were a little wound up, so I gave my 12-year-old his first paying baby-sitting job. His instructions were to put on a movie and come get me if I was needed. I woke up to the sound of loud snores- from the 12 year old. One of the little ones was asleep, and the other one was still watching the movie. I think we all got to bed by 1:30am. A fun time was had by all.

I've pondered discontinuing the ole blog. When we started this, it was to share the things God was teaching us. Lately, it seems that the things we've been learning would be inappropriate to share. To share them would either seem boastful, or gossipy, or complaining.

When we answered God's call to minister to youth, a lot of things came with that- things we weren't necessarily prepared for. Becoming involved in a child's life is complicated. Their family situations are complicated. Sometimes looking into their eyes is like looking at the face of death. It makes me want to cry, to scream, and sometimes to beat some sense into them. The only way to break the generational patterns of self-destruction and self-loathing is Jesus. This Jesus whom we preach, this Jesus whom we love... is the same Jesus at whom they scoff, the same Jesus whose death they mock. I believe some of these children only come to youth meetings be certain that Satan is duly represented.

That being said, I think for a while this blog is just going to focus on family and "pseudo-farming" things. Fun stuff. Good stuff. We'll be thinking on good things.

Psyching Myself Up for Youth Camp

2009-03-20T07:07:00.000-06:00

*Recalling things about our kids at church that make me smile*

Shortly after accepting our assignment from God at the small church where we now serve, I noticed things are a little different here. Homier, maybe. Despite all the problems that these teenagers have (and they would rival the problems of inner city kids), they retain some of the mannerisms of hill country upbringing.

One evening, I offered a bowl of chili to a 13 year old boy who had been sitting on the table, legs dangling over the side in constant swing motion, and chatting with me while I cooked. (If I remember correctly, he was telling me how to clean fish and gut deer.) His response? “No, thank y’ma’am. I’ve not been feelin’ all t’myself today.” I wanted to pinch his cheeks and tell him how cute that was, but 13 year old boys don’t take too kindly to such things.

Updates & Repairs

2009-03-06T13:03:00.004-06:00

Sometimes projects around here take a long time. For instance, my "Mother's Day gift" last year....I asked Scott to remove the old tub & surround in the kids' bathroom and replace it with a new one. He wasted no time in purchasing the new tub and tearing out the old. However, it soon became apparent that we were in over our heads. This week, we hired a friend to complete the project. This is what it looked like for months.

And this is it today.

It still needs some trim around it, but it is now functional.

Another "before and after":

If You Give A Kid A Camera...

2009-03-02T21:18:00.003-06:00

He'll take a photo of his face.

Seeing his face will make him realize how funny his self-portrait can be, so he'll take another one.

And his favorite candle.

And Mom coming to take the camera away.

Planning Ahead

2009-03-02T08:27:00.003-06:00

As we sat admiring the fire last night, my oldest son began chattering about a variety of things. The stuff most 11 year old boys think about, in my world, anyway. Things like: how to make ink, good building sites on the property, how many 8"-16" diameter trees he would need to cut down to build a "standard-sized one room cabin", etc. This morning, I found the notes he was making as he chattered.

Our First Casualty

2009-02-21T14:08:00.002-06:00

It's been nearly a year since our boys were all given BB guns. This was bound to happen eventually.

We had just returned home from a fun day of field trips when Noah decided to show Gloria how to shoot a BB gun. I was barely paying attention- I heard him explaining how to aim, then-CRACK! At least he remembered to aim it in a safe direction- the only casualty was our geology lesson/cookie jar (I love homeschooling!)

Noah was stunned that the gun fired. He operates under the "Never leave a gun loaded" rule. That works well for him, but it was his brother's gun. And Brother's rule is, "Always leave the gun loaded in case there's trouble. Leave the safety on so that it can't be accidentally fired."

I think we all learned a valuable lesson. And, ahem, Sonja, please disregard the conversation we had earlier this week about children and gun safety.

Didn't hear this one on the news....

2009-02-17T21:41:00.000-06:00

Saturday with the Winslows

2009-02-16T08:26:00.004-06:00

A friend from church let us borrow his tractor this weekend. Nothing says "I love you" like a plowed garden plot.

Or 100 seeds planted in styrofoam cups.

The garden helpers still in their jammies, with added layers for warmth!

Investment Advice?

2009-02-14T21:59:00.003-06:00

I think it is funny how many people laugh at Peter Schiff in this video. You can see who laughs last.

Here is another funny video....they didn't even read the bill:

An Interesting Morning

2009-02-13T12:36:00.005-06:00

While on my way to prepare breakfast for the man of the house, I passed a window. Much to my surprise, I saw this little gal.

I went outside to have a better look, and found that she was quite a docile creature. So docile that I wondered if she were sick. She didn't want to walk with me, so I picked the little thing up and carried her around to the back, where the hubby joined me. We decided to tie her up and try to find who she belonged to. Then we heard the honking of horns, and found this lovely group of visitors running down the middle of the road and heading up our driveway.

The goat only stayed for a little while... her owner picked her up by 8:30. The guineas stayed on a little longer, but they are always welcome here. I love what they do!

What fun to live in the boonies!

Breakdown of my traffic violation

2009-01-29T19:33:00.002-06:00

Excitement is not my middle name. I don't like a fast-paced life. I'm much more likely to choose a quiet day at home over a day out on the town. So, as contrary as it is to my nature, I get speeding tickets. I've had 3 of them in my 12 years of marriage, with two of those in the last 1 1/2 years.
Scott is a "go-go-go" personality. He has people to see, places to go, and things to do. A favorite question of his is, "What are we doing tonight?" Ask me how many times he has been pulled over for speeding. More than I can remember, and I have a pretty good memory. How many tickets? Two. But only one counted, because the other time the state trooper was escorting the President through a disaster area on his court date. Seriously, he has talked himself out of trouble soooo many times. Me? I say, "Yes, sir," "Thank you. Have a nice day." Every time I've been pulled over, I've been ticketed. I was always told that women could get a warning, but not me.
But my purpose here is not to bemoan my unfortunate encounters with the traffic cops. I was looking over my most recent speeding ticket receipt, and I noticed there is a breakdown of the cost of the ticket. I found it most interesting. Take a look:
Moving violation $1.00
State litigation $13.75
City Court Cost $40.00
Traumatic Brain Injury Fund $5.00
Misc. Traffic Cost $20.00
Data Processing Fee $2.00
Officer Fee $25.00
City Litigation $13.75
City Fines $22.00

Traumatic Brain Injury Fund? Really?

Cold chickens

2009-01-16T10:43:00.002-06:00

Every egg our hens have laid in the past 2 days has looked just like this. I don't think they like the cold very much. We have to thaw the eggs before we feed them to the dog.

Homeschool Dress Code

2009-01-09T20:35:00.002-06:00

Gloria can change clothes three times a day and accessorize. This is what happens when Elijah dresses himself.

2009-01-06T09:04:00.003-06:00

From KnoxNews.com:
December 21
An early morning fire in South Knoxville has left a family of four homeless and a father crediting an angel for their safety. The blaze at 206 Stone Road just off Chapman Highway was reported about 3:30 a.m. The father said he woke up and went to his kitchen but was pushed back by smoke, according to Knoxville Fire Department Capt. D.J. Corcoran. He woke up his wife, and they gathered their sons, 1 and 2 years old, and fled the house. “I asked him if he knew what happened,” Corcoran said, and “he said he didn’t know.” He had laid down Sunday night to put his 2-year-old son to sleep and fell asleep himself, Corcoran said. He said the man told him that what he remembered was having a dream. “He said a woman came to him in the dream ... she looked like an angel and knew she wasn’t going to hurt him,” Corcoran said the man told him. “He said she told him to wake up that he had lost a child in a fire, and he had to get up and get out of the house,” Corcoran said. That’s when the man got up and went to the kitchen and was hit with the smoke, Corcoran said, and fled. The man’s cell phone was not getting reception so the family drove to the Pilot, where he called E-911 on his cell. He left his family in the warmth of the station and drove back to his house. By that time, KFD’s Engine 13 and Squad 19 had arrived to find the brick-veneer house fully involved, Corcoran said. The bitter cold froze water in the street, but firefighers got the blaze knocked down fairly quickly, Corcoran said. No one was injured. The man’s father picked up the family, and the Red Cross has been contacted.
“They lost everything,” Corcoran said. Their names were not immediately available. More details as they develop online and in Tuesday’s News Sentinel.

This is the baby's room, where my little brother was sleeping with my 1 year old nephew. What is left of the mattress is leaned up against the wall. The ceiling collapsed in that room just after they got out. The firefighters told them that if they had been in the house another 45 seconds, they would have all been dead. The smoke detectors? They didn't sound the alarm until the family was running out the door. The televisions, in every room, were unrecognizable- vaporized or nearly so. On the same entertainment center as one of the televisions, a Bible was untouched by fire. There is soot on the edges of the pages, but otherwise it is fine.

I praise God that they made it out alive, and pray that this draws them nearer to the Lord.

Mountain Get-Away

2009-01-06T08:41:00.003-06:00

Scott and I on a 6 mile hike through the mountains

I crack myself up.

There was no 6 mile hike. We took this photo on one of the "quiet walkways" along our drive through the Smoky Mountains National Park.

After years of trying... or maybe not... Scott managed to totally surprise me this year at Christmas. Apparently the whole family was in on it- which makes me look at them a little more suspiciously, I must confess. I was given a series of gifts that presented me with a new outfit, hat & gloves, socks & underwear- a tad embarrassing in front of the entire family- and ultimately a cleverly disguised itinerary. I say cleverly disguised because the box contained a bottle of tylenol and some batteries. The man knows I like to shake gifts, so he made sure it would make noise. Scott had arranged for our children to spend 2 nights with his sisters and parents and we took off to a cabin in the mountains.

2009-01-06T08:22:00.003-06:00

December 12, 2008

The snow started falling after dark... my children were outside dancing in the snow that night. We're some regular party animals, I tell ya.

This and That

2008-12-09T23:33:00.004-06:00

'Twas a quiet day at home, for which I am truly grateful. We had rain most of the day- it's still raining now- so it was very nice to not have to go out.

We've been working on the coat & clothing closet at church this week. It is slow going. I had some great help on Sunday evening, and more on Monday. If it is not too crazy tomorrow, it would be lovely to have some of the young ladies from the youth group help with folding and organizing.

And now for photos...

Scott and two of the children gathered around to watch Peter and The Wolf on the computer

The $12 Menorah we found at an antique store. I've been searching for months!

The Englishman's Hat

2008-12-03T14:00:00.004-06:00

Last night, my husband surprised me with a hat. "What a lovely hat," I thought, as I replaced my scarf with it. Just as I rounded the corner out of my bedroom, I was met by my 8 year old son who couldn't control his amused giggles.
"Mom, was that hat made in England? Because you look like an Englishman. If you had a mustache, even a fake one from the Dollar Tree, you would look just like an Englishman."
Hee hee, ha ha ha. He was serious, too. No worries about him wooing any ladies!

My fuzzy self-portrait with the Englishman's hat

What to say?

2008-12-02T20:13:00.003-06:00

Things have been quiet here on the ole blog.

Most things going on have been too private to write about. Lots of people have lots of problems. I suppose there is nothing new in that. I must be a good listener.

I haven't taken many pictures lately. Perhaps I just need to keep my camera close by so I can take more pictures. Photos are inspiring- a jumping off place for a story of some sort.

I really had to dig to find a photo to post today. This is what Gloria and I do when one of her older brothers is using our very noisy grain mill.

Tomorrow, I'll do better. It is Wednesday, though, so there is no telling what will happen.

The Life of our Lord

2008-11-24T07:02:00.002-06:00

I mentioned to Scott that I would like to find a copy of Charles Dickens' The Life of Our Lord, and sure enough, he found it at a thrift store. A first edition, cloth-bound, still-in-pretty-good- shape copy. And for only $3.99. That man can find anything!

Chickens, Chickens, and More Chickens

2008-10-22T06:56:00.004-06:00

Don't leave your windows down when you come to my house!

I still don't understand why the chickens like to be carried around. They don't protest, and Noah loves nothing better than to have a chicken under each arm.

And while we're on the subject of creatures with brains the size of peas, I voted a few days ago. I actually considered not voting this year, for the first time since I turned 18. There was no one, save one candidate for state representative, that I felt good supporting. I must confess that the main reason I did vote was out of frustration with our current elected officials. Not one of the senators or representatives here voted against the Wall Street bailout. NOT ONE. So I voted against every incumbent up for re-election. I voted for members of a party that I always said I would never vote for. And I feel good about it- though only marginally, because I know that the ones I voted for are probably no better than the ones I voted against. At least I am not supporting the same liars time after time. Spread the love, ya know.

As for the presidential election, I'm thoroughly discontent with both candidates. There was temptatation to vote third party, but all that does in a two party system is split the vote. If the "liberals" have 3 candidates, the liberal vote is split three ways and the "conservative" wins. If the "conservatives" have 3 candidates, then the conservative vote is split three ways, and the "liberal" candidate wins. Look at what Ross Perot did to the election of 1992. For all the good that voting 3rd party would do, you're just as well off to not vote. I understand voting 3rd party to make a statement, but in reality your vote doesn't matter. You can accomplish the same thing by not voting at all.

Why the kids can't walk through their room...

2008-10-22T06:47:00.003-06:00

How many children do I have, anyway? There must be some hiding around here somewhere.

I pared the kids down to four pairs each: dress shoes, boots, tennis shoes, and sandals. The only one who didn't want to give away some of her shoes was the girl.

Nic's Pics

2008-10-16T07:40:00.001-06:00

Cave formation, Cumberland Caverns, McMinnville, Tn

Bringing Down the Cool Factor

2008-09-29T13:31:00.002-06:00

When the kinfolk offer to keep the kids all night on a Friday night, what is a happening young couple to do? A little browsing the aisles of GFS? Perusing the clearance aisles at Marshall's? Hit their most favorite toy store (with no children in tow) to look for marked down educational toys?

Do we know how to paint the town red, or what?

The night was topped off by dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill with an equally happening young couple, followed by a search for the perfect thermos, and pleasant conversation in the parking lot of Dick's Sporting Goods after we closed the joint down. There was, naturally, a group of teens with thumping music and scooters on the other side of the parking lot, but we way outlasted them.

Hen Update

2008-09-20T07:06:00.002-06:00

She's still with us. We believe that she ate the egg because it was cracked. As far as we know, there have been no more eggs consumed by chickens.

I know, you hardened chicken people are laughing at us.

We do have two hens in solitary confinement because they won't stay out of the neighbor's yard. We instituted a "Two Strikes- You're Out" policy. The first time, their wings were marked with spray paint. The second time, they were placed in a cage. Now they are awaiting a new home with either Grandma or a friend.

Nic's Pics

2008-09-20T06:58:00.001-06:00

Sandy Lake Amusement Park, Carrolton, Texas

Changing the language

2008-09-20T06:17:00.008-06:00

S NE1 stil hre? yl Iv bn awy frm blogging, Iv bn wurkn on my txtN abilities. cn u read dis? ROFL IK mosta u cnt read dis @ ll. f u cn, u spnd fr 2much tym txtN. Or uv teens. Or u wrk ina yth ministry. txtme sumtym, yo! mwah

Will it someday become necessary to translate the Bible into this?

Rehabilitating a Rotten Hen??

2008-08-28T10:55:00.002-06:00

What should we do with a hen who eats eggs?

What we did this evening...

2008-08-21T21:44:00.003-06:00

He was only 10 weeks old, and free-ranged to boot, so he was kinda small. We didn't age the meat in the fridge, but rather cooked it right away. He was quite tasty, though a little tough.

We also processed 4 pints of strawberry jam.

Nephews on the farm

2008-08-21T21:31:00.002-06:00

This one loved the chickens. He was also especially fond of Nicholas. Nicholas put him down for his nap each day, and put him in bed at night.

This one loved the corn. He also loved chewing on bits of paper. He loved just about everything except diaper changes. Oh, how he squirmed during those!

They're laying!

2008-08-21T21:23:00.003-06:00

The first egg. The eggs we collected today.

Nic's Chicks or Factory Chicks

2008-08-14T20:38:00.007-06:00

This video doesn't do the actual experience justice. We were driving through Shelbyville Tennessee today, when we had the good fortune to find ourselves behind a huge Tyson chicken truck. I can tell you that the smell was indescribable. Our 55 chickens smell, but it is a completely different smell from these. The smell was rancid, for lack of a better word. As bad as the smell was, the sight was worse. These chickens were crammed into the dirty and rusty cages so that they could not fully stand up. Chicken cages were stacked on top of chicken cages so that excrement from the top would cascade down to the levels below. The chickens we saw did not have feathers on their bellies or on their bottoms. We assumed that this was because their bellies probably dragged the bottom of the cages. We're not sure. All of the chickens were thirsty. Their beaks were slightly open and they panted.

It was quite enlightening for us to see these birds treatment and physical appearance, when compared to our own chicken experiment. Our birds' poop smells, but it was a "normal" poop smell and not rancid smelling. Our birds have nice full feathered bodies. They free-range and are in excellent physical condition.

We are by no means "animal rights" people, but there is just no comparison between a small farm raised bird and these factory fowl.

Dallas Again

2008-08-12T14:12:00.003-06:00

So it looks like we will be visiting the Dallas area in early September.

We have been unable to find good, reliable information about the relative safety of the area surrounding the Arlington hotel we are planning to stay in. Can anyone advise me about which areas to avoid? I know we wandered into some pretty scary places last year. Our hotel was not scary (in the traditional sense, anyway). It was, however, downtown and very pricey - something we are not looking to repeat.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Food Preservation

2008-08-12T14:01:00.004-06:00

I have now canned a total of 9 quarts of tomatoes. So far it has been quite enjoyable and educational. All of my jars have sealed- other than that, I don't know what to look for as far as quality. I'm just pleased that they are sealing.

Can anyone tell me why the jars seem to have less liquid in them now than when I first removed them from the canner? Does that mean we shouldn't eat the tomatoes?

Nic's Pics

2008-08-12T13:52:00.002-06:00

It's time once again for a look in Nicholas' picture folder to see what gems he's captured lately.
Smiling kids...
Landscape scenes flying by the car at 70 mph...
And, OH MY!

Uncle Frank's souvenir boar's head from his hunting trip this past winter.
That is just plain creepy.

The Trip Homeward

2008-08-12T13:02:00.003-06:00

Gloria and Elijah with Uncle Jake

We visited my hometown last week. We didn't get to see all the family, but we did get to have an extended visit with my younger brother and his family. The first night we had dinner together, and then they came to our hotel room for a couple of hours. Jake will get down on the floor and crawl around with the kids, which they LOVE. See that maniacal grin on Gloria's face? She was having a great time. The next day, while Scott worked (the reason for our trip there), the kids and I stayed with my sister-in-law and her two adorable sons. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully it won't be long til we see them again.

We also visited with my parents for the first time in over 2 years. Gloria didn't remember them at all, so she was a little shy. It was good to see the grandparents again.

The Big Day

2008-08-11T19:02:00.003-06:00

Nicholas took part in his very first 4H poultry show on Saturday. Here's a video of Gloria and Nicholas spending a few last minutes with the hens before they are auctioned off to a new family. So sad- he's been known to ride around the yard on his bike with a chicken under his arm. And, oh, how they love the golf cart!

Wait a minute.... who gave Dad the checkbook? For a $42 donation to our local 4H club, the 6 hens came back home with us. Alas, there will be no extra space in the chicken tractor, but there were 4 happy children in our vehicle on the way home.

Garden Bounty

2008-07-30T10:25:00.004-06:00

We've been harvesting veggies for a couple of weeks now. It may not look like much, but we're thankful for it. When we were planting the garden, I was doubtful that anything edible would come out of it. Glory to God for the food He has provided.

Below is my first ever attempt at shelf-stabilization of food. We now have two quarts of pickled peppers. Both jars sealed, so now we are anxiously awaiting the day we can open one up and taste the peppers.

I also made a ground cherry pie, but it wasn't here long enough to get a photo.

Wild Edible Day

2008-07-30T10:19:00.004-06:00

These milkweed pods were too large to eat whole, so Scott boiled them and we ate the white part from inside. They were delicious and had a great texture. I would have eaten more, but Scott wouldn't let me- we only got a taste to make sure we're not allergic.

*See comments for more information.

The Granny-Mobile

2008-07-30T10:08:00.002-06:00

Mom said it was too hot to go outside, but Noni stepped up. Who couldn't love a grandma like that?

Five days and four nights later...

2008-07-20T14:21:00.005-06:00

Each night during our service we had teens want to sing, do puppet shows, and act out skits. This night, these four young ladies sang "Give Me Jesus" with Scott.

The transition from youth camp to normal life is much more difficult than I imagined it would be. I can't adequately describe camp to you. It was awesome to be used of God, and to be used in so many ways that I did not expect to be....

I would love to share some of the things that happened. Right now I don't feel like I can do justice to the things I witnessed and was a part of. Perhaps I will share those things later as God gives me the words to do so.

For today, I just want to say that we're back. God is faithful. He hears the prayers of His people. He unites people for the cause of Christ. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu...

2008-07-10T23:07:00.002-06:00

For a while, anyway.

The laundry is not all done and put away, the bathrooms are not clean, the living room still needs straightened.

The dog and hens are boarded at Noni's house, and the children will join them tomorrow. The car is over-packed with a PA system, projector, musical equipment, & enough snacks and bottles of water for an army. We still have to fit the suitcases, guitar, computer, and 4 children in there somewhere.

My phone has been ringing off the hook today. Lots of last minute questions about what clothing is acceptable and what time we meet. One girl had her mother call to find out if a shirt that says "Be Smart. Don't Start." and a drawing of a cigarette with a slash through it violates the "no advertising youth-inappropriate products" rule.

Tomorrow Scott works part of the day, then we leave to have the annual youth camp with 24 of our closest teenage friends, and 6 other adult chaperones. We will be studying Biblical conversions and the adults will be sharing their testimonies.

The hardest part of youth camp is leaving my own children behind. Originally we had planned to bring them with us, but have now decided against it. The teens we bring along come from a variety of backgrounds. There's a fine line between protecting my kids from harm and allowing them to see the world for what it is. This time we've opted for leaving them with Grandma. I also feel like I would be short-changing either my kids or the teens if I were responsible for both this week. Fortunately camp ends Tuesday, so Scott still has the rest of the week off work to spend with our kids.

Our teens have many problems. If you think of us this week, please pray that they will surrender to the Lord. Pray that His power will change their lives and that they will live for God even when their friends and family are living for themselves.

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

2008-07-08T14:38:00.012-06:00

Pearl then...

And now... well, sometime last year, anyway.

After the Rain

2008-07-02T12:45:00.002-06:00

We went on an evening hike to have dinner in the cabin.

A Fast-Paced Life

2008-06-20T22:50:00.005-06:00

There are days that I wonder how we had time to do anything when we owned a tv. Thinking back, we really didn't do anything. The old me was sometimes depressed because I felt alone. Homeschooling and not working outside the house, it was difficult to not sometimes pine after my old, carefree life before children. As God brought me closer to Him, I became more patient and content with life as it was, even if it did seem a bit humdrum. I've been walking with the Lord for a few years now, and He has filled my empty, lonely, PPM* time with good work to do. Whenever I am tempted to complain of the work that needs to be done, I recall how much I wanted something productive to do. Many times I don't get a chance to update our blog because we're just too busy. I thought tonight would be a good time to update you on some things I haven't blogged about for a while- or maybe not at all.

Our new Buff Orpington chicks arrived on May 30th. We ordered 25 hens and 5 roosters, but we received 26 hens and 5 roosters. I love freebies!

These new little birds needed a place to call home, as I was quickly tiring of the fragrance of chicks in the utility room. Scott put a lot of effort into planning for the next chicken coop. The first one was a prototype. He will now build 3 more so we can split the chickens up and give them enough room to roam. Our goal is that they will be able to free range during the day and then be closed into their coop at night. We will have about 8 chicks per coop.

The plan is really well thought out. The end opens into a staircase for the hens to climb. Chicken wire covers the front, and plywood the back. The bottom is a 4x8 plastic hydroponic bed. It has some holes so that we can hose it out and catch all the good stuff that comes out in a bucket and add it easily to our compost pile. The nesting boxes are part of a plastic barrel that Scott picked up for a few dollars. He quartered it lengthwise, then attached it open side up to a hinged piece of wood in the back, so we can open it up and get eggs out.

I've primed it already, and the chicks are spending their third night outside tonight. I still need to paint it, but for now it is usable, and that is all that matters to me. I'll get some more pictures of the special features up another day.

The cabin project has taken backseat for a while. With youth camp to plan, chickens to house, and a garden to plant, it has fallen off the plate. We did finish the roof, finish the siding, and add a couple of shelves inside. We also added this to it.

We're just big kids, really. The slide is a little steep- it zings the kids off pretty fast. It is more like a controlled fall. I have banned them from sliding until the bottom is properly lifted off the ground. Someone suggested putting an air mattress at the bottom, but I am envisioning the kids hitting it and being instantly bounced into the pond. No, I don't think we'll use the air mattress.

The garden is coming along. Here's a shot of it. It's not the best, but we've been working with what we have.
We've planted tomatoes, peppers, onions, okra, ground cherries (the big leafy things), yellow squash, cucumbers, green beans, watermelon, cantaloupe, winter squash, corn, carrots, swiss chard, and brussel sprouts. My photo quality is poor here... please excuse my sub-par picture. I'll get a better one soon.

*PPM= Poor Pitiful Me

Free Range Chickens

2008-06-19T06:27:00.003-06:00

Happy little ladies, they are.

Nick's Pics

2008-06-19T06:22:00.002-06:00

My oldest son has taken to referring to himself as Nick. I don't call him that, but sometimes his brothers and sister do. He has a folder on the computer called "Nic's Pics". Every now and again I look through it to see what he's taken pictures of. I found this photo of our somewhat frightened-looking little hen. It was a posed shot; Nicholas put her in the tree.

1 Year With Miqueias

2008-06-14T07:45:00.002-06:00

We've been sponsoring Miqueias through Compassion International for a year now. I know this because his birthday is rapidly approaching. When we received his sponsorship packet in the mail, the first thing we noticed was that his birthday was coming up soon. We put $ for a gift in the mail right away.

In honor of his birthday, I want to answer one of the questions that I have been asked by brothers and sisters in Christ about child sponsorship. If you want to know the mechanics of how it all works, you can visit www.compassion.com to learn more.

The question comes from folks whose desire to follow the Lord I do not question. I was, however, somewhat taken aback by it.
"What if the local church that Compassion is partnering with is not teaching real Biblical doctrine?"

My short answer is: Will we be paralyzed by the thought that perhaps the local church partner won't share our Biblical views on everything? Will we let a child starve and believe that he is unworthy of love because there is a possibility that the local church, which is working to feed, clothe, and teach these children might disagree with us? Compassion, in partnership with the church, does not only teach the children about Jesus, they teach them how to read and how to brush their teeth, and how to care for themselves. Most of all, they are given hope. You can be a real, living, breathing, almost touchable Christ on earth to a child. You write letters of encouragement. You send photos. You tell them that God loves them, that Jesus died for them, that you serve them because you serve the Most High God.

Working with the teens at church, we get a glimpse of the hopelessness they have when Mom and Dad don't know God and act accordingly. Now add third world style poverty on top of that, and maybe, just maybe you can have some vague idea of how hopeless their lives are without Compassion. You can be a beacon of hope to a child who believes he is no better than the filth that lines the streets. Or will fear of accidentally sponsoring the Devil's work keep you closed up in a hole-shut off and unaccessible to the "least of these" who are suffering right now? Is it God's will that no one help these children, and in turn, their families? Where do you come in? How do you get involved?

God calls us all to minister in some way. How do you minister? I'd love to hear about what you do for God.

A Visitor

2008-06-12T15:37:00.005-06:00

This little fawn was cute today- especially when its mother emerged from the wood and they stood nuzzling each other. Ask me how cute it is once my garden has been invaded.

There seem to be a lot of deer this season. Over the last few days we've seen them more and more. Last night when we came in at nearly 11, there were two deer dancing about the side of the road in front of our house. I should check in on Joe and see how he's doing.

Marcus, Part 2

2008-06-09T11:13:00.001-06:00

Things down in the youth room were not as we expected. My husband often knows exactly what someone’s primary struggle is, because God lets him know. It’s not something that is contrived, but he will feel compelled to share a word or past experience with someone and it cuts right to the heart of what the problem. So I was feeling pretty confident that Marcus had opened up to him and he was providing wise counsel to Marcus.

As soon as they came back into the kitchen, I could tell something was not right. Scott and his co-laborer had spent over two hours with Marcus, and when they walked in there was a noticeable distance between them. Scott asked for another plate of food for Marcus, which we immediately provided. They sat down to talk some more. I heard enough that I knew things were not good, but I didn’t want to just stand around listening, so I left the kitchen. After Marcus left (close to the time we were dismissing kids- we were diligent in making sure that they stayed inside while waiting for rides) we were filled in on all that had transpired. Here’s some of the conversation that took place.

Scott: “So are you going to North Carolina or South Carolina?”

Marcus: “It depends. Are you talking about the Devil’s upper lip or lower lip?”

Scott: “I don’t understand.”

Marcus: “The eastern coast of the States is the Devil’s face. So are you talking about his upper lip or his lower lip?”

Scott: “Which one does your dad live in?”

Marcus: “David just made you do that thing with your arm.”

Scott: “No, he didn’t.”

Marcus: “David and Charles are the ones controlling you.”

Scott: “No, they’re not. It is true that I am a puppet. I am a puppet of the Most High God. David and Charles cannot control me.”

Marcus: “David just made you put water in that cup.”

Scott: “No, the Lord told me to put water in this cup. This cup was empty. Now it is filled with water. It can’t be filled with milk, because it is already filled with water. Just like me. I’m filled with Christ. No one else can fill me, because I am filled already.”

Scott: “Take this Bible with you.”

Marcus: “I can’t. There’s no room.”

Scott: “Here, take this,” Scott said, tearing out Matthew 5,6, and 7.

Marcus: “No. It is a sin to take anything away from or add anything to the Bible.”

Scott: “Okay, well, let that be my sin. Take this and read it.”

Marcus: “No.”

Co-Laborer: “If we could find a very small Bible that had both the Old and New Testaments, would you take that?”

Scott pulled his personal very small Bible filled with color-coded highlighting out of his back pocket. “Take this,” he said. “It’s the whole thing. You can have it.”

Still Marcus refused. He reads Harry Potter, and says that it is a lot like the Bible.

Marcus also shared that he is controlled by 4 different “people.” They pull him, make him move, tell him what to do. He believes that “God” and “Jesus” are all part of a grand charade, based on the alphabet being used in creative ways. Scott shared Yeshua with him, and he didn’t know how to make that fit into the charade the demons have told him to believe in. He believes that people’s names tell what their souls are like. All names have meanings, but some of us, according to Marcus, don’t do what our names say we should do. His father’s last name means (to Marcus, anyway) “Making My Life Hell.” This was not said in jest. He talked about Mother Africa, a large black lady, who tells him what certain things mean. Marcus lives in Illinois and goes to the Carolinas to visit his family. Always on foot. The trip takes him 1 year to make. He’s made it twice in the past. According to Marcus, his family is not expecting him and won’t be happy to see him.

The encounter with Marcus was a little un-nerving. It touched off a whole weekend of dealing with demons. God is making us more aware of the very real supernatural forces around us. Marcus is just a man. Marcus needs to be saved from his demons. We should go out of our way to bring Marcus and people like Marcus to the Lord. Marcus has heard all about Jesus. He’s rejected him thus far. He’s not under his own power right now, but we still need to reach out to him and cover him in prayer and real, practical help. The Lord deserves Marcus because he has paid a price for him. Marcus rightfully belongs to the Lord.

Marcus

2008-06-09T07:19:00.003-06:00

My husband insists that sometimes he is used of God because he is too stupid to know when he is in over his head. I don't really think that is the case, but the kids at church like to hear him say it.

I told you all that Scott had asked me to put together a list of scriptures for our scavenger hunt. Well, while I was doing that, I kept coming back to Luke 14:12 ("Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.") This verse caught my attention several times as I was preparing a dinner for many people. I couldn't see how I could incorporate this into the scavenger hunt, so I left it off of the list, but was well aware that this dinner should be a place to invite "the least."
On the drive out to our church building from town, we saw a man walking with a duffel bag on his back. Neither of us said anything, but we both noticed him. Scott later told me that he was thinking, "That's the kind of person that we should be helping, but he's too scary-looking for anyone to pick up."
Two hours later, after feeding the teens, I began putting away the leftover food. As I turned around from the refrigerator, I saw the man from the side of the street standing in the church kitchen. He just made sense to Scott and me. It was as if God had been telling us to expect him. Another lady and I hastily made him a plate of food, and Scott & another man from our church took him to the youth room to have some time to talk with him and help him get cleaned up and pick out some new clothes (we keep a "coat & clothes closet" for this purpose). The lady who was helping with the food left to find socks, deodorant, and a razor for the vagrant, whose name was Marcus. She was so flustered when she left that she went the wrong direction and had to turn around and go back. She shared with me that all she could think of was, "Jesus is here and I get to go buy him socks"- in keeping with "whatever you do to the least of these, you do it unto me."
So the women-folk were just about giddy with excitement and anticipation of what was happening in the next building. We went ahead with the evening's movie plan for the kids and would every now and then peek out at the other building. We were excitedly waiting for good news. What exactly that good news would be, we were not sure. Things were not as cheery as we were thinking they would be. As a matter of fact, we were dead wrong. Sometimes serving God brings us face-to-face with demons.

In Shambles

2008-06-07T08:08:00.003-06:00

Our poor little blog is, anyway. She's been sadly neglected. I can barely see you guys (the few of you who are left) over all the thistles and weeds. Nobody wants to be the neighbor who knocks on the door and says, "Wow! You guys have really let this place go." Well, nobody, that is, except Ginny. Thanks for your brutal honesty. :)

Excuse #1 for aforementioned neglect: We've been struggling to get our garden put in, without our trusty tiller. The Trusty Tiller proved to be unworthy of its title. It's back now, and maybe next week I can get the other 2/3s of the garden planted. Ahem... and stop your snickering, you hardened and learned gardeners who thumb your noses at modern conveniences like tillers.

Excuse #2 for aforementioned neglect: Standardized testing. We're finally finished. I will be sending the tests in next week for scoring. Glad it's over.

Excuse #3 for aforementioned neglect: Youth VBS is tonight and all day tomorrow. Our grandparents are out of town, so alternative arrangements had to be made for the part of the day tomorrow that my own children won't be attending. Plus there are extra meals to cook- tonight I'm feeding them risotto, homemade rolls, and dessert. Tonight's portion of VBS is easy- dinner and a movie (Facing the Giants). Tomorrow begins with breakfast, Sunday School, they will go to church w/ hubby while I shuttle my children to an aunt's house 20 minutes away and arrive back at the church in time to feed them lunch at the end of the service. Then we hit the road for a Scripture Photo Scavenger Hunt, for which I am still compiling a list. We end up back at church before evening service begins and dismiss afterward. Then my kids come back home. It's kind of a busy weekend. Did I mention that Scott is working today, too? He'll be going nonstop this weekend. Prayer support is always appreciated, more for the work than for us, though we need it, too.

Excuse #4 for aforementioned neglect: The arrival of a storage shed has caused lots of rifling through things in closets and under beds to determine what needs to go outside.

Excuse #5 for aforementioned neglect: The temps have finally changed enough to justify the seasonal wardrobe changes to be made. We have been dividing clothes into : "someone can fit into this next year" and "too small for any of us to ever wear again". And might I add, the temperatures went from slightly cool but totally comfortable to raging hot. From highs in the 70s to highs in the mid 90s for several days now.

Excuse #6 for aforementioned neglect: For three days I tried to upload a video of my happy chickens in the yard, but Blogger refuses to allow it to happen.

I could go on, but I have a lot to do. So pardon me while I power up the weed whacker and try to restore order to our little piece of the blogosphere.

Was I Duped?

2008-05-16T09:51:00.003-06:00

Growing up, I fancied myself to be a cool older sister. I only had one younger sibling, and I believed that it was up to me to make sure that he was loved, nurtured, and taught. I liked to think of him as my responsibility, my charge, and to some degree, my child. I think all little girls must be like that. They like to be little mothers. At our house, I'm "Big Mama" and Gloria is "Little Mama".

When my little brother was old enough to have homework, I loved to sit with him and help. I realized, though, that some nights he would sit and talk and talk and talk and talk.... and make precious little progress on his homework. I determined that I would find a reason to leave and say something like, "I'll be back in a minute, Jake, and when I get back, I'll help you with number six if you make it that far. But I doubt that you will." Without fail, I would come back and he would be way past number six, just to prove that he could do it.

That experience served me well. I babysat a 10 year old a couple of times in college, and the same thing worked for him. Proving that he could work alone and work fast was a great motivator for him. And once I married my husband, I got to help his 10 year old sister with her homework in the evenings. One of the great perks of being married to him was that I gained 4 younger siblings. Megan, my 10 year old sister-in-law, could yack it up with the best of them. We talked about what she dreamed the night before, about the baby growing in my belly, about which boys pulled her hair at school. It was great... except that she wasn't actually doing her homework. So I pulled out the great motivator: "I'll be back in a few minutes. I doubt you'll be to number 6 by then, but if you are, I'll help you with it." Every time she exceeded my expectations.

Today, I needed a motivator for Noah. So, experienced as I am, I pulled out the same old trick. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Maybe you'll be to number 4, where you'll need my help. I'll help you with it, if you're there, but I doubt it. There's a lot of hard work between here and there." With that, I left. I went into my bedroom and closed the door. After a few minutes, there was a knock at the door, and a paper slipped under. My pride swelled up in me- it had worked and worked much better than I had anticipated. He was finished, and so quickly. I pictured my smiling 7 year old brother all those years ago, and in my mind, he looked just like Noah. I was a great teacher, and a great motivator. I sighed contentedly.

And then I looked down and saw this:

My son had simply written down random numbers to fill in the blank spots on his paper. He had not even attempted the problems. Now that I am the teacher, I noticed this. I don't think I ever even checked Jake and Megan's work. Did they do this too, knowing that I would never check the answers? The little sneaks... I feel duped.

Sunday Afternoon

2008-05-15T21:31:00.002-06:00

My view, straight up.
Looking out...
Scott's working on the roof.
She was mildly amused by something I said.
Eventually she fell asleep and I got around to helping out.

To Test or Not to Test?

2008-05-06T12:10:00.003-06:00

I am considering giving my children the CAT (California Achievement Test) this year. I don't know of anyone who has used this test, but most of the homeschool testing websites use this one. Does anyone have personal experience with it or any other achievement test? We don't follow the state curriculum. We may be learning about the Roman Empire while the state schools are teaching American history. My interest is in finding out how my children perform on the basic skills portion of the test.

Thanks.

More Cabin Work...

2008-05-02T15:09:00.004-06:00

There's a hokey little Muppets song that the kids like to sing when we're trekking to the back to work on the cabin. "In a cabin in the woods a monster by the window stood..." It just gets better and better, but you'll have to take my word for it. Here are some shots of what we've gotten done lately.

Nicholas caught my interpretive dance routine on film for all to see. ;) Really, I'm not sure what I was doing.
Daddy taking a break. The siding is up, except for the part that will be under the wall of windows.

We had to clear some trees to make way for the scaffolding. Here's a shot of some of the resulting carnage.

Elijah's first time in the cabin. Note the hillbilly scaffolding. Only 2 windows left to go.

Scott paid $10 for these 8 windows and several other sizes of windows at a yard sale. We're still not sure what we'll do with the others.

Our Sanford & Son Chicken Tractor

2008-05-02T14:59:00.002-06:00

We only used those blankets for the first day... :) There is now a well-fitted and tied down tarp providing shade to the not-so-little chicks. That's Elijah inside- dumping out a bucket of worms he collected for the chickens. Isn't that sweet?

Triumph over Tragedy

2008-05-02T11:08:00.004-06:00

This week we've had the honor of seeing God work- bringing forth good from the most tragic of circumstances. My words will not do justice to the works of the Lord. But to make no mention of it because I may not be able to adequately share it with you would be wrong. Please accept my humble bumbling attempt to sing the praises of my Jesus.

On Wednesday evening the youth from our church got to meet a young man named Matthew. Matthew could not be with us in person, but the Lord provided us with photos, video, and a letter from his sister. Matthew would have fit in well with the group of kids we have- several of them said he looked familiar. They felt like they knew him from somewhere. Matthew's favorite song, which was on his Myspace page, is the favorite song of several of the young ladies in our youth group. The song was playing as the kids came in to eat, and we were accused by one of taking it from her Myspace page. It caused a great stir... we don't do secular music, and we give the kids grief about it. So the very fact that they walked in to hear a country music song was shocking.

Matthew was homeschooled- he graduated in 2007. He was one of 7 children. He worked at a fast food restaurant, and had a crush on a girl. Matthew professed to be a Christian. He thought of himself as too pure, and said that if he had obeyed God less, he might have had a more productive life for God in the long run. In a letter, his sister warned him about his prideful heart. "You're own heart is very successfully deceiving you... I constantly pray for you... I often cry. I'm not so scared of the police with you, Matthew, as I am of God's chastisement. Any branch that doesn't bear fruit is cut off... I hope this hurts. Sometimes truth does. I hope it hurts because if you acknowledged the truth as it is right now, it would hurt. So if it doesn't hurt, you're already hardened against God too much--perhaps even given over to a "reprobate mind"! I cry...and pray...every single day... "

Last Friday, while my husband was on vacation, Matthew took his life at Scott's place of business. One of Scott's co-workers, T, watched him die: watched him struggle for his last breaths, watched his body go ashen, watched the blood spill out from his body. T made no attempt to help (not that there was anything that would have stopped his death). T did not speak a word to Matthew. He said, "I didn't even pray for him." He stayed 6 feet away and watched a young man die.

Our youth could identify with one of the "players" in Matthew's story.
Some of them are like Matthew's sister- doing everything they can to minister to the lost and dying around them.
Some of them are like the co-worker- claiming to be Christians but not stepping in to help someone in need of help. They have nothing to give to the dying because they are not filled with the Holy Spirit. So they stand and watch people die and don't get involved.
Some of our kids are like Matthew himself- their hearts are deceiving them. There is something in this life that is more important to them than serving the Lord. When a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend collapses, they feel like it is the end of the world. Or when Mom or Dad let them down in some way, they think life is not worth living.

After Scott's lesson, we went to watch a group of our teens perform a skit they have been working on. Because God's timing is perfect, they were in the right spirit to bring this message to a building full of non-church-going people. The skit was (and we are not big fans of skits!) to a song called "All I Want" by Lifehouse. (There are many versions of it on Youtube if you are interested in seeing it. I don't believe that anyone videotaped our kids, so I can't show you that.) The skit portrays a young woman who is in love with the Lord and then is swept away by a boyfriend, love of money, vanity, drunkenness, and finally death. "Death" shows her how to cut her arms and gives her a gun- urging her to kill herself. When she stops fighting the demons around her and drops down to pray, Jesus defeats the demons, cleans her up, and they walk away arm-in-arm. The young lady who portrayed "Death" wore a mask, and she stated afterward that she cried the whole time, thinking of Matthew.

When they were finished, our pastor spoke about the need for salvation and repentance. He did not have the typical "alter call". He prayed that anyone in need of salvation would come under conviction and would be conflicted and tormented about their condition, so that they would earnestly seek the Lord. Most of the folks who came to see their kids/friends in the skit stayed for the rest of the adult service. Several kids came to Scott stating that there were things in their lives that were keeping them from serving the Lord, and they want to get rid of them.

Another way that the Lord is using this for good: While Scott was putting together the slideshow of photos for the kids at church, someone came to him (at work) and stated that an employee had just come in and told them she was planning to kill herself. Scott had Matthew's picture up on the computer screen- looking right at him. He spent an hour and a half counseling this employee and was able to share Matthew's video with her. She said, "My mind is tricking me. Something keeps telling me that if I kill myself, it won't be permanent." That sends chills down my spine. Satan is the father of all lies.

Mastercard has nothing on us!

2008-04-27T21:30:00.002-06:00

Habitat ReStore door..... $20.

Hinges from Lowes... $4.

Watching it actually close flush with the door frame...Priceless.

Not bad for his first door-hanging project!

Surfing and other fun stuff....

2008-04-22T18:20:00.007-06:00

Vacation week always brings with it a nice change of pace. Some vacations are restful. Others, like this one, are full of projects. We've been working on a cabin out back in the woods. While we were back there, I noticed that the pond needed aerated. I put the kids right to work.

A little later, when we had errands to run, we picked up some goldfish to put in there. We purchased 30 of them for $6.00 plus tax. The audio on the following video clip is a little messed up.

The pet store had a wallaby for $2000. Scott briefly contemplated becoming a wallaby farmer (or rancher). They also had an alligator, but it was already sold. *sigh*

Our cabin/shed/guest house has been progressing. Usually we are lucky to get an hour at a time to work on it, but this week we've been able to spend more time there. Here are some photos:

There was even more work done by the end of the day, but I was not able to take a photo of it. Our young lady of the house had an unfortunate accident with a cedar tree. I brought her home to patch up some boo-boos, and we never made it back.

Our chicks have been outside during the day enjoying the sunshine and 80 degree temperatures. I haven't gotten any pictures of them yet, but I will. They are in our chicken tractor and are absolutely loving it! Perhaps I will assign the job of photo-taking to one of the children, as I haven't gotten to it in the past 2 days. I love to watch them try out their wings.

In other news, my buddy Faith has started a website dedicated to reporting good news. You can visit her here. Tell her Sista G sent you!

Sucker...

2008-04-17T22:05:00.005-06:00

This is our first foray into poultry, so we don't really know what normal behavior looks like. I thought this little lady might be ill, so I picked her up for an examination. She flapped her little wings and pecked at my fingers til I let go. Here she is enjoying her few minutes of freedom.

The weather today was beautiful, so we took the chicks out to enjoy some fresh air. They didn't want to go back inside, but since they're not fully feathered yet, we took them in anyway. It won't be long til they can stay outside.

AVKO Sequential Spelling

2008-04-10T11:07:00.003-06:00

Disclaimer: If you do not have a school-aged child, you may not be the slightest bit interested in this post. We're just too excited to keep this to ourselves!

A couple of weeks back, Noah came to me and said that he would be happy if he could just learn these three things: how to write neatly, how to spell, and how to type. I was overjoyed.... those are great things to learn, and I actually might be able to teach those. If he'd asked me to teach him how to repair small gas engines, I'd have been in trouble! The language book we were using was going into a lot of detail regarding WHY certain sounds are made by certain letters at certain times. Noah and I were BOTH confused!

So, we launched a search for a good spelling program. The search began the same way many of our curriculum searches begin- with the Sonlight Catalog. That is where I first read about Sequential Spelling. The first lesson is available online to try for free. We're six days into it, and I can see amazing improvement in Noah's spelling. Today, Noah wrote "beginnings" with no help from me. He also wrote "Mr. Skinner". When we started a few days ago, he wrote "begining" and "sciner" for "skinner". This program teaches spelling patterns without confusing explanations. It's made primarily for dyslexics. It is working for us and we're thrilled. There is no studying, no writing multiple times, or any of the other standard spelling curriculum stuff. Just one word list per day, dictated by me and accompanied by a sentence using the word. He writes the word, I give him the correct spelling, and he immediately corrects it. That's it.

Noah and I are both very pleased with Sequential Spelling thus far. Today we placed our order for the first book (which is non-consumable, so we can use it over and over again). We highly recommend it!

My Stupid Pride

2008-04-02T13:05:00.002-06:00

When I have experienced conviction about something in my life, my desire is to share it with others. Sometimes my pride gets in the way. Sacrificing self is not easy to do. So I am allowing you to watch me butcher my prideful self right here. Here goes:

Many times my husband gives me directions. Many times inwardly I grimace (okay, sometimes outwardly, too). My ways are usually better, in my opinion. Lately I have been convicted that my attitude needs to be corrected. I am beginning to understand that submission to my husband better prepares me to be in, and remain in, a right relationship with my Lord and Savior. If I cringe when my husband lovingly corrects me, what does that say about my attitude?

A few days ago, Scott announced after dinner that he wanted to go out in the woods. I thought he could take the kids out, they could have some "daddy time", and I would have a few minutes to clean up the dinner table. That is, until he poked his head back in the door and let me know that they were all waiting on me.
Me: But I was going to stay in and clean up the dinner dishes.
"Oh, come on," he says. "I'm not going to make you work; I just want your company."
That sounds very sweet now, and I’m certain that this makes me sound horrid, but I was quite perturbed. He was interrupting my plans. The house was going to be quiet and clean for a few minutes, but now he was telling me that we were going to be out in the woods until dark. This meant that when we came in, I would need get the kids cleaned up and ready for bed, and then clean the kitchen. I obediently put on my mud boots, but inwardly I was rather irritated.

As I trudged up the trail, I felt the Lord speaking to me through my husband’s words. “I’m not going to make you work; I just want your company.” The Lord doesn’t have to include me in his plans, but he chooses to. I began to wonder, “Do I respond to Jesus in the same way that I just responded to my husband?” “Do I begrudgingly go when he says to go, or do I go with joy in my heart?” “Am I thrilled to be included in his plans, or would I rather stay home and clean my dirty kitchen?”

Ouch. My husband will read this. Double ouch.

For Ginny & Sonja

2008-03-30T14:34:00.005-06:00

Chicken Independence!

These little ladies have gotten noticeably bigger each day. Aside from a near-death experience the first night, all has been well. Our power was knocked out by a storm, which gave the birds a chill. I was awakened by loud peeping and found them all huddled together in a black fuzzy mass. Scott powered up the generator to run their heat-lamp for the hour or so that we were without electricity.

The kids are enjoying watching them, and so far, no one has complained about having to tend to their needs.

Fuzzy bunnies, Pastel eggs, and other things that have nothing to do with Christ

2008-03-20T23:40:00.000-06:00

Well, if you read my post on Santa Clause, you probably already know that we don't exactly do the Easter Bunny thing. For the same or similar reasons as outlined in this post. Don't get me wrong, I grew up a firm believer in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. At my house, we had a fairy for everything. It was only after my second birth and subsequent studies of the Scriptures that these things really started to seem blasphemous. Blasphemy, that's a strong word, I know. But it does mean "to bring dishonor to God", and I think the definition fits. I've seen some churches try to keep or to make Easter about the resurrection of Christ. They may call them "Resurrection eggs" but I tend to think that's about as honorable as putting a big pink bunny on the cross in the sanctuary. I decided to study this whole Easter thing to try to find out how it started and how we managed to screw it up and turn it into whatever this is that we have now. Here's what I found:

The word "Easter" is only mentioned once in the Bible. It is found in Acts chapter 12. It is translated from the word "Pascha", which everywhere else in the Bible is translated "Passover." That made me think, "Why a different translation in this one place?" I can't exactly ask King James, but there's a pretty decent argument that it was sort of a nod toward the Roman Catholic Church. They had absorbed quite a few pagans into the church, who still really liked to celebrate the pagan feasts, not least of which was a feast celebrating the fertility goddess Ishtar. And you thought it was just a bad movie from the eighties.

So back to Ishtar... that explains the fuzzy bunny and pastel eggs, for those were symbols of the goddess of fertility, sexual love, and war. Monty Python was right, bunnies are evil. Just so we don't confuse things, I'm going to refer to Christ's resurrection as the Ultimate Passover.

Now here's a funny thing: if you study the Passover you are going to be blessed with foreshadowing and the rich history behind this feast. The symbolism of the lamb, the blood, and etc. that was all throughout the Old Testament was a shadow of what God was going to do with his own son. If you've read much of the New Testament, you know about the Lord's Supper (Communion), right? For years it didn't dawn on me that this was a Passover supper.

Here's something else I find interesting: At what point did Christ announce that "his time" was at hand? It was when the Greeks (Gentiles) were among the Jews who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The Greeks were seeking Jesus while the Jews were cooking up their own lamb. That just blows my mind. Read your Bible; check it out. Jesus kept the Passover. Paul kept the Passover. Early Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, kept the Passover. Why shouldn't we? I'm not saying we have to sacrifice an unblemished lamb- the ultimate sacrifice was made through the Ultimate Passover. Call it what you want- Passover or Lord's Supper- we're going to have us a nice meal on April 19th. And what we do will be in remembrance of Him.

Women's Bible Study

2008-03-16T23:09:00.002-06:00

I have a natural distrust of "dynamic" personalities. Really, I do. I don't trust anyone with any amount of charisma. I also don't trust women in pantsuits. Okay, I'm joking about that one (kind of).
I have never taken part in a Beth Moore bible study group and I don't plan to change that. Many women think that she is the pinnacle of holiness- "If I only I could be more like Beth Moore..." I've been invited to many and always politely claimed inability to make it to the meeting- which is completely true. That, however is not the main reason I say no. I don't attend because I study the Scriptures on my own. Just me and the Holy Spirit of God, and oftentimes my husband. We talk about what we've read, we look up Greek words, we sometimes start on one subject and end up somewhere else altogether. I prefer this method to using someone else's thoughts and "points to ponder". When actually taking an active part in a Bible study, I interact more with God. I don't just sit and listen to someone else talk about interacting with God. And one of these days, I'm going to tell someone that when I am asked why I never come to the meetings. For now, I'm just telling you, here in this confidential blog post.

Now that that is out of the way, would anyone be interested in studying the Bible with me? My thought is just that we would read the same parts and compare notes- at least that is how I always start. Then if God leads us in another direction, so be it.

I'm also wondering if anyone has any thoughts on any of the other women who have written books about being a Godly woman.

187 Weekdays Later....

2008-03-07T11:02:00.003-06:00

We are finally finished with our school year. Today is the first day of 3 weeks of freedom: freedom from schedules and constant prodding. This is what it looks like.

Today we are expected to have a real, bonafide winter storm! We're sooo excited. Nicholas has prepped the generator (just in case) and we have verified that each child has boots and gloves easily accessible. We thought about going to the grocery store to purchase bread and milk, but it seems a shame to load up and head out into the cold, cold rain.

Hey, Mom, What Is This Stuff?

2008-02-29T14:11:00.003-06:00

Now you folks up north, don't laugh. We take what we can get around here... this little bit of snow closed schools and cancelled church services all over the mid-state. There was a rush on bread and milk in the local grocery stores.

I busied myself with the age-old tradition of thawing little frozen fingers with cups of steaming cocoa. It was a great half-day, then the sun came out and melted our little winter wonderland.

Of Brothers and Dentists....

2008-02-22T08:39:00.003-06:00

It was a most dreaded event... dental exams. Ick! Dentist visits top my list of things I'd rather not do. However, after weeks of nagging from my 4 year old (how pathetic am I?), I finally made the appointments. It was nearly an all day event. We scrambled in the door 20 minutes before the hungry daddy was due to arrive. As I rushed around preparing dinner, I noticed that the kids were working together on something. There was no bickering, no squealing, no toy cars crashing into the walls- only quiet, serious sounding voices. I went to investigate, and found that all three boys were working together to give their little sister a dental exam. She was the only child too young to see our dentist and felt left out. There was a chair set up in the bathroom where Nicholas brushed and flossed her teeth. Elijah and Noah worked together on taking X-rays (they used a camera on a tripod). They each donated something to make a goody bag for her- it consisted of floss, toothpaste, and a new toothbrush. When she was all done, she came into the kitchen flashing her smile for all to see and proclaiming, "My guys took me to the dentist!"

Yes, it is long. Yes, it is worth reading. No, I did not write it.

2008-02-18T19:35:00.000-06:00

INTRODUCTION
And today I would like to speak to you about from the theme "Ten Shekels and a Shirt," as we find it here in Judges Chapter 17. I'll read the chapter and then I will read a portion also from the 18th to the 19th chapter so that the background might be clear in our minds. "And there was a man of mount Ephraim whose name was Micah." A little background if you please. There was a situation where the Amorites refused to allow the people of the tribe of Dan any access to Jerusalem and they crowded them up into mount Ephraim. It is a sad thing when the people of God allow the world to crowd them into an awkward position. So the people of Dan were unable to get to Jerusalem. Out of this comes the problems that we are about to see.JUDGES 17:1-13 (KJV) And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said unto his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son." And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, "I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee." Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And there was a young man out of Bethlehem-judah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehem-judah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. And Micah said unto him, "Whence comest thou?" And he said unto him, "I am a Levite of Bethlehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place." And Micah said unto him, "Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals." So the Levite went in. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons. And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, "Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest."JUDGES 18:1-6 (KJV) In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, "Go, search the land:" who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there. When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither,and said unto him, "Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?" And he said unto them, "Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest." And they said unto him, "Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous." And the priest said unto them, "Go in peace: before the LORD is your way wherein ye go."JUDGES 18:14-21 (KJV) Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, "Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do." And they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and saluted him. And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate. And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war. And these went into Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, "What do ye?" And they said unto him, "Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy month, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?" And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people. So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them.
THE LEVITE
Well there's the story. This isn't part of the actual history of the Judges, this is a gathering together of some accounts that enable us to see the social condition in that period when every man did as seemed right in his own eyes and there was no king in Israel. So we understand that Micah was unable to get to Jerusalem. He decided he would build a replica of the temple on his own property. He built what he thought would be an appropriate building and he made the instruments of the tabernacle, for these are part of the furnishings, the ephod included among them, but then he also gathered some of the things from the people around him; the teraphim, the images which God had forbidden. But you see nevertheless there was a desire to get along as best he could. So he took a little bit of the world and a little bit of Israel, that which had been revealed by God, and he sort of mixed them up, until he had something that he thought might please the Lord. Then of course he was delighted beyond words when wandering young preacher came along from Bethlehem, Judah. He was a Levite, his mother was of the tribe of Judah. Though he himself was a Levite, God had given permission through Moses that the Levites might marry into other tribes and they might join themselves to other tribes.
This young man didn't like the living, provided for every Levite. He had wanderlust and an itching foot and so he started off to see if he couldn't do better for himself than was being done. He felt that being a Levite was good but there should be opportunities associated with it, and so he came to the house of Micah. There he waited and there he was invited in and asked to become the priest. And Micah made a deal with him, he said, "You'll be my priest, be my father and priest, then I'll give you ten shekels and a shirt." It says a suit but you understand that the people of the day wore what would be called a gelabia, a long sort of an outsized, a nightgown. And he gave him a suit of clothes or a change of apparel and his food and ten shekels a year. This was a pretty good living for him so he decided that he would stay there and enter into the mixture of idolatry and so on that was in the house of Micah. But the people of Dan came along, they were suppose to have driven out the Amorites but the Amorites were too difficult, and they wanted to find someone that was a little easier to get out, to move. And they came to, Micah's house and the Levite told them to go ahead. Then you find that they discovered that there were people after the manner of Zidonians at Laish. They were peaceful and no one was there to protect them, and so they figure this would be very good place to take some land for themselves. When they came with the men that were sent to conquer this area they figured that since they found the land through the young Levite, it would be splendid to have his assistance. And so they went into the house of Micah, took all the things that he had made (and it cost a good bit of money,) because at least two hundred shekels had been given for this one piece of furniture. And so they just took it all, made it theirs and took the Levite. Rather hard on Micah, but you'll notice the young Levite was able to adjust himself to this. It was amazing how flexible he was and how easily he could accommodate himself to such changes when there was a little rationalization along the way. He could began to see that it was far more important to serve a tribe than one man's family. And he could minister to so many more. Why he could see the wisdom of this and he could justify it. With no real strain of conscious he could make the adjustment, hold his hand over his mouth while they took the furniture out of the little chapel that Micah had built. He was a wise man nonetheless, rather than go along at the front, which put him in a place of danger or at the rear, which put him in a place of danger, he put himself right in the middle. So that it Micah has sent any of his servants to get him he was safe with soldiers on every side.
PRAGMATISM
What can we call this and how will it apply to our days generation. Would I be out of line in order if I were to talk to you for a little while about utilitarian religion and expedient Christianity? And a useful God? I would like to call attention to the fact that our day is a day which the ruling philosophy is pragmatism. You understand what I mean by pragmatism? Pragmatism means if it works it's true. If it succeeds it's good. And the test of all practices, all principles, all truth, so called all teaching, is do they work? Do they work? Now - according to pragmatism, the greatest failures of the ages have been some of the men God has honored most. For instance, whereas Noah was a mighty good ship builder, his main occupation wasn't shipbuilding, it was preaching. He was a terrible failure as a preacher. His wife and three children and their wives were all he had. Seven converts in 120 years, you wouldn't call that particularly effective. Most mission boards would have asked the missionaries to withdraw long before this. I say as a ship builder he did quite well, but as a preacher he was a failure. And then we come down across the years to another man by the name of Jeremiah. He was mighty effective preacher, but ineffective as far as results were concerned. If you were to measure statistically how successful Jeremiah was, he would probably get a large cipher. For we find that he lost out with the people, he lost out with royalty, even the ministerial association voted against him and wouldn't have anything to do with him. He had everything fail. The only one he seemed able to please was.... God, but otherwise he was a distinct failure. And then we come to another well known person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was a failure according to all the standards. He never succeeded in organizing a church or denomination. He wasn't able to build a school. He didn't succeed in getting a mission board established. He never had a book printed. He never was able to get any of the various criteria or instruments that we find are so useful, I'm not being sarcastic at all, they are useful. And our Lord preached for three years, healed thousands of people, fed thousands of people, and yet when it was all over there were 120..., 500 to whom he could have revealed Himself after His resurrection. And the day that He was taken, one man said, "If all the others forsake you, I'm willing to die for you." He looked at this one and said "Peter you don't know your own heart. You're going to deny me three times before the cock crows this morning." So all men forsook Him and fled. By every standard of our generation or any generation, our Lord was a single failure. The question comes then to this, what is the standard of success and by what are we going to judge our lives and our ministry? And the question that you are going to ask yourself, "Is God an end or is He a means?" Our generation is prepared to honor successful choices. As long as a person can get things done or get the job done then our generation is prepared to say well done.
And so we've got to ask ourselves at the very outset of our ministry, and our pilgrimage, and our walk, "Are we going to be Levites who serve God for ten shekels and a shirt?", serve men perhaps in the name of God, rather than God. For though he was a Levite and performed religious activities, he was looking for a place, which would give him recognition, a place which would give him acceptance, a place which would give him security, a place where he could shine in terms of those values which were important to him. His whole business was serving in religious activities, so it had to be a religious job. He was very happy when he found that Micah had an opening. But he had decided that he was worth ten shekels and a shirt, and he was prepared to sell himself to anyone that would give that much. If somebody came along and gave more, he would sell himself to them. But he put a value upon himself and he figured then his religious service and his activities were just a means to an end, and by the same token, God was a means to an end.
HUMANISM
Now in order to understand the implications of that in the twentieth century, we must go back 150 years, to a conflict that attacked Christianity. Just after the great revivals in American with Finney, the Spirit of God having been marvelously outpoured onto certain portions of our country, there came an open attack on our faith in Europe under the higher critics. Darwin had postulated his theory of evolution, certain philosophers had adapted it to their philosophies, and theologians had applied it to the Scripture. About 1850 you could mark the opening of a frontal attack upon the Word of God. Satan had always been insidiously attacking it. But now it was open season on the Book, open season on the Church, and Voltaire in France could declare that he would live to see the Bible become a relic, placed only in museums; that it would be utterly destroyed by the arguments that he was so forcefully presenting against it. Well, what was the effect of this? The philosophy of the day became humanism. And you could define humanism this way, humanism is a philosophical statement that declares the end of all being is the happiness of man. The reason for existence is man's happiness. Now according to humanism, salvation is simply a matter of getting all the happiness you can out of life. If you're influenced by someone like Nietzche who says that the only true satisfaction in life is power and that the power is its own justification, and that after all the world is a jungle. And it is therefore up to the man to be happy, to become powerful, and become powerful by any means he can use. For it is only in this position of ascendancy or as we saw in the worship of Molech that one can be happy. This would produce in due course a Hitler who would take the philosophy of Nietzche as his working operating principle and guide and would say of his people that they were destined to rule the world. Therefore any means that they could to achieve this was then salvation. Somebody else turns around and says, "Well no, the end of being is happiness, but happiness doesn't come from authority over people, happiness comes from sensual experience." So you would have the type of existentialism that characterizes France today, that's given rise to beatnicism in America and to the gross sensuality of our country. Since man is essentially a glandular animal who's highest moments of ecstasy come from the exercise of his glands, salvation is simply to find the most desirable way to gratify this part of a person. And so this became the effect of humanism, that the end of all being is the happiness of man. John Dewey, then an American philosopher influencing education, was able to persuade the educators that there were no absolute standards. Children shouldn't be brought to any particular standard, that the end of education was simply to allow the child to express himself and expand on what he is and find his happiness in being what he wants to be. So we had cultural lawlessness, when every man could do as seemed right in his own eyes and we had no God to rule over us. The Bible had been discounted and disallowed and disproved. God had been dethroned, He didn't exist, He had no personal relationship to individuals. Jesus Christ was either a myth or just a man, so they taught, and therefore the whole end of being was happiness. The individual would establish the standards of his happiness and interpret it.
LIBERAL, FUNDAMENTAL or...NEITHER?
Now religion then had to exist because there were so many people that made their living at it, so they had to find some way to justify their existence. So back about the time, in 1850, the church divided into two groups. The one group was the liberals, who accepted the philosophy of the humanism and tried to find some relevance by saying something like this to their generation, "Ha, ha, we don't know there's a heaven. We don't know there's a hell. But we do know this, that you've got to live for 70 years! We know there's a great deal of benefit from poetry, from high thoughts and noble aspirations. Therefore it's important for you to come to church on Sunday, so that we can read some poetry, that we can give you some little adages and axioms and rules to live by. We can't say anything about what's going to happen when you die, but we'll tell you this, if you'll come every week and pay and help and stay with us, we'll put springs on your wagon and your trip will be more comfortable. We can't guarantee anything about what's going to happen when you die, but we say that if you come along with us, we'll make you happier while you're alive." And so this became the essence of liberalism. It has simply nothing more than to try and put a little sugar in the bitter coffee of their journey and sweeten it up for a time. This is all that it could say. Well now the philosophy of the atmosphere is humanism; the chief end of being is the happiness of man. There's another group of people that have taken humbridge with the liberals, this group are my people, the fundamentalists. They say, "We believe in the inspiration of the Bible! We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ! We believe in hell! We believe in heaven! We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ!" But remember the atmosphere is that of humanism. And humanism says the chief end of being is the happiness of man. Humanism is like a miasma out of a pit, it just permeates everyplace. Humanism is like an infection, an epidemic, it just goes everywhere.
So it wasn't long until we had this, that the fundamentalists knew each other because they said "We believe these things!" They were men for the most part that had met God. But you see it wasn't long until having said "These are the things that establish us as fundamentalists!", the second generation said "This is how we become a fundamentalist! Believe in the inspiration of the Bible! Believe in the deity of Christ! Believe in His death, burial, and resurrection! And thereby become a fundamentalist." And so it wasn't long until it got to our generation, where the whole plan of salvation was to give intellectual assent to a few statements of doctrine. And a person was considered a Christian because he could say "Ah hah" at four or five places that he was asked. If he knew where to say "Ah hah", someone would pat him on the back, shake his hand, smile broadly, and say "Brother, you're saved!" So it had gotten down to the place where salvation was nothing more than an assent to a scheme or a formula, and the end of this was that salvation was the happiness of man because humanism had penetrated. If you were to analyze fundamentalism in contrast to liberalism of a hundred years ago as it developed, for I am not pinpointing it in time, it would be like this: The liberal says the end of religion is to make man happy while he's alive, and the fundamentalist says the end of religion is to make man happy when he dies. But again! The end of all of the religion it was proclaimed was the happiness of man. And where as the liberal says, "By social change and political order we're going to do away with slums, we're going to do away with alcoholism and dope addiction and poverty. And we're going to make HEAVEN ON EARTH! AND MAKE YOU HAPPY WHILE YOU'RE ALIVE! We don't know anything about after that, but we want to be happy while you're alive!" They went ahead to try and do it only to be brought to a terrifying shock at the first World War and utterly staggered by the second World War, because they seemed to be getting no where fast. And then the fundamentalists, along the line, are now tuning in on this same wavelength of humanism. Until we find it something like this: "Accept Jesus so you can go to heaven! You don't want to go to that old, filthy, nasty, burning hell when there is a beautiful heaven up there! Now come to Jesus so you can go to heaven!" And the appeal could be as much to selfishness as a couple of men sitting in a coffee shop deciding they are going to rob a bank to get something for nothing! There's a way that you can give an invitation to sinners, that just sounds for all the world like a plot to take up a filling station proprietor's Saturday night earnings without working for them. Humanism is, I believe, the most deadly and disastrous of all the philosophical stenches that's crept up through the grating over the pit of Hell. It has penetrated so much of our religion. AND IT IS UTTER AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH CHRISTIANITY! Unfortunately it's seldom seen. And here we find Micah, wants to have a little chapel, and he wants to have a priest, and he wants to have prayer, and he wants to have devotion, because "I KNOW THE LORD WILL DO ME GOOD!" AND THIS IS SELFISHNESS!!! AND THIS IS SIN!!! And the Levite comes along and falls right in with it! Because he wants a place! He wants ten shekels and a shirt and his food! And so in order that he can have what he wants, and Micah can have what he wants, THEY SELL OUT GOD! For ten shekels and a shirt. AND THIS IS THE BETRAYAL OF THE AGES!!! And it is the betrayal in which we live. And I don't see HOW GOD CAN REVIVE IT! Until we come back to Christianity, as in DIRECT AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH THE STENCHFUL HUMANISM that's perpetrated in our generation in the name of Christ. I'm afraid that it's become so subtle that it goes everywhere. What is it? In essence it's this! That this philosophical postulate that the end of all being is the happiness of man, has been sort of covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the angels exist for the happiness of man..., Everything is for the happiness of man! AND I SUBMIT TO YOU THAT THIS IS UNCHRISTIAN!!! Isn't man happy? Didn't God intend to make man happy? Yes. But as a by-product and not a prime-product!
REVERANCE FOR LIFE
On Albert Schweitzer, good man highly admired by the fuzzy thinkers of our day, lived for years in Congo, East Africa. He was a brilliant man, a philosopher, doctor, musician, and composer. But he should never be called a Christian. He doesn't see Christ as having any relevancy to his philosophy or life. He is a humanist.A favorite sport of the Belgian government officials who were expert marksman was crocodiles shooting from the deck of a streamer on the Congo River. They kept tally by means of a knotted string around their gun barrel, counting the number of crocodiles killed. Schweitzer was rightfully appalled by their revolting sport. He deemed it a colossal waste of life. From these experiences Schweitzer gleaned the essence of his philosophy, summed by these words__ reverence for life. Crocodile life...human life...and other kinds of life. Dr. Schweitzer was so convinced of reverence of life that he didn't like to sterilize his surgery. He had the dirtiest surgery in Africa. Bacteria are life and must not be destroyed.
George Kline, a veteran missionary with the South Africa General Mission, lived about 60 miles from Dr. Schweitzer station. George was an accomplished organist and organ repairer. He was asked by Dr. Schweitzer to come to his station to check out his malfunctioning organ, donated by a friend in Germany. George went over to see the good doctor. "George, do you think you can fix my organ?" "I'll try." he responded. George took the back off the organ and to his amazement discovered a huge nest of cockroaches. With characteristic, American enthusiasm and zeal George started trampling all over the cockroaches not to let a one of them get away. And the good doctor came out, his hair standing straighter than it had for a long time, and because of his anger he said "YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" George said, "Why? Their ruining your organ." He said, "That's alright, they were just being true to their nature," he said, "You can't kill those." So one of the boys came in and said, "It's alright Mr. Kline." And he reached down very tenderly, picked them up, and put them in a little bag, and crimped the top, and he took the roaches out into the jungle and let them loose. Now here was a man that believed his philosophy, reverence for life. UTTERLY COMMITTED TO IT! UTTERLY CONSISTENT! Even when it came to the matter of cockroach or a microbe. Do you see? This is humanism, this is consistency. NOW I ASK YOU WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS? WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVANGELISM? WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF A CHRISTIAN? If you'll ask me why I went to Africa, I'll tell you I went primarily to improve on the justice of God. I didn't think it was right for anybody to go to Hell without a chance to be saved. So I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to heaven. Now I haven't put it in so many words, but if you'll analyze what I just told you do you know what it is? Humanism. That I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions of suffering and misery. And when I went to Africa, I discovered that they weren't poor, ignorant, little heathen running around in the woods looking for someone to tell them how to go to heaven. That they were MONSTERS OF INIQUITY!!! THEY WERE LIVING IN UTTER AND TOTAL DEFIANCE OF FAR MORE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THEN I EVER DREAMED THEY HAD! They deserved Hell! Because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscience, and light of the law written upon their heart, and the testimony of nature, and the truth they knew! And when I found that out I assure you I was so angry with God that on one occasion in prayer I told Him it was a mighty ..... little thing He'd done, sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go to heaven. When I got there I found out they knew about heaven, and didn't want to go there, and that they loved their sin and wanted to stay in it. I went out there motivated by humanism. I'd seen pictures of lepers, I'd seen pictures of ulcers, I'd seen pictures of native funerals, and I didn't want my fellow human beings to suffer in Hell eternally after such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear THROUGH THE OVERLAY OF THIS HUMANISM! And it was that day in my bedroom with the door locked that I wrestled with God. For here was I, coming to grips with the fact that the peopleI thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to heaven and were saying "Someone come teach us", actually didn't want to take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no interest in the Bible and no interest in Christ, and they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to that place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery, and I had been sold a bill of goods! And I wanted to come home. There alone in my bedroom AS I FACED GOD HONESTLY WITH WHAT MY HEART FELT, it seemed to me I heard Him say, "Yes, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? The Heathen are lost. And they're going to go to Hell, not because they haven't heard the gospel. They're going to go to Hell because they are sinners, WHO LOVE THEIR SIN! And because they deserve Hell. BUT, I didn't send you out there for them. I didn't send you out there for their sakes." And I heard as clearly as I've ever heard, though it wasn't with physical voice but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its' way into an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this, "I didn't send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen, I sent you to Africa for My sake. They deserved Hell! But I LOVE THEM!!! AND I ENDURED THE AGONIES OF HELL FOR THEM!!! I DIDN'T SEND YOU OUT THERE FOR THEM!!! I SENT YOU OUT THERE FOR ME! DO I NOT DESERVE THE REWARD OF MY SUFFERING? DON'T I DESERVE THOSE FOR WHOM I DIED?" I was there not for the sake of the heathen. I was there for the Savior who endured the agonies of Hell for me. But He deserved the heathen. Because He died for them. My eyes were opened. I was no longer working for Micah and ten shekels and a shirt. But I was serving a living God. Do you see? Let me epitomize, let me summarize. Christianity says, "The end of all being is the glory of God." Humanism says, "The end of all being is the happiness of man."
And one born in Hell, the deification of man. AND THE OTHER WAS BORN IN HEAVEN, THE GLORIFICATION OF GOD! And one is Levite serving Micah, and the other is a heart that's unworthy serving the living God, because it's the highest honor in the universe.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
What about you? Why did you repent? I'd like to see some people repent on Biblical terms again. George Whitefield knew it. He stood on Boston Commons speaking to twenty thousand people and he said, "Listen sinners, you're monsters, MONSTERS OF INIQUITY! You deserve Hell! And the worst of your crimes is in that criminals though you've been, you haven't had the good grace to see it!" He said, If you will not weep for your SINS and your crimes against a Holy God, George Whitefield will weep for you!" That man would put his head back and he would sob like a baby. Why? Because they were in danger of Hell? No! But because they were MONSTERS OF INIQUITY, who didn't even see their sin or care about their crimes. You see the difference? You see the difference? The difference is, here's somebody trembling because he is going to be hurt in Hell. AND HE HAS NO SENSE OF THE ENORMITY OF HIS GUILT!!! AND NO SENSE OF THE ENORMITY OF HIS CRIME!!! AND NO SENSE OF HIS INSULT AGAINST DEITY!!! He's only trembling because his skin is about to be singed. He's afraid and I submit to you that whereas fear is good office work in preparing us for grace, it's no place to stop. And the Holy Ghost doesn't stop there. That's the reason why people cannot savingly receive Christ until they've repented. And persons can repent that persons has been convicted. And conviction is the work of the Holy Ghost that helps a sinner to see...THAT HE IS A CRIMINAL BEFORE GOD AND DESERVES ALL GOD'S WRATH. AND IF GOD WERE TO SEND HIM TO THE LOWEST CORNER OF A DEVIL'S HELL FOREVER AND TEN ETERNITIES, THAT HE DESERVED IT ALL! And a hundred fold more. Because HE'S SEEN HIS CRIMES!
THE PREACHERS
There was a difference in the time of John Wesley in the 18th century England. Wesley was a preacher of righteousness who exalted the holiness of God in his two to three hour open air sermons. He dwelt on the law and God, the justice of God and the wisdom of His requirements. He would depict to sinners the enormity of their crimes and their open rebellion and treason and anarchy. The power of God would so descend on the congregation that people were smitten to the ground, utterly unconscious. They had had a revelation of the holiness of God and had seen the enormity of their sins. The Spirit of God had penetrated their minds and hearts. This phenomena also happened in America in the 18th century at Yale University during the time of John Wesley Redfield. Outdoor evangelistic meetings were held in the amphitheater at Yale University. Policeman controlling the crowds were cautioned to delineate between the common drunk, whose alcohol breath betrayed him (and he was locked up for drunken behavior). Those who had been smitten by God were diagnosed as having "Redfield's disease." They were removed to a quiet place until they returned to consciousness. Lives were transformed men if had been drunkards, they stopped drinking; cruel persons changed; immoral people and gave up immorality. Thieves repented and returned what had been stolen. Men and women had seen the holiness of God and the enormity of their sin. The Spirit of God had driven them down into unconsciousness because of the weight of their guilt. Somehow in the overspreading of the power of God, sinners repented of their sin and came savingly to Christ.
THE DIFFERENCE!
But there was a difference! It wasn't trying to convince a GOOD MAN that he was in trouble with a BAD GOD! But that it was to convince BAD MEN that they had deserved the wrath and anger of a GOOD GOD! And the consequences were repentance, that lead to faith, and lead to the life. Dear friends, there's only one reason, one reason for a sinner to repent and that's because Jesus Christ deserves the worship and adoration and the love and the obedience of his heart. Not because he'll go to heaven. If the only reason you repented, dear friend, was to keep out of Hell all you are is JUST A LEVITE SERVING FOR TEN SHEKELS AND A SHIRT! THAT'S ALL! You're trying to serve God because He'll do you good! But a repentant heart is a heart that has seen something of the enormity of the crime of playing God and denying the just and righteous God the worship and obedience that He deserves! Why should a sinner repent? BECAUSE GOD DESERVES THE OBEDIENCE AND LOVE THAT HE'S REFUSED TO GIVE HIM! Not so that he'll go to heaven. If the only reason he repents is so that he'll go to heaven, it's nothing but trying to make a deal or a bargain with God. WHY SHOULD A SINNER GIVE UP ALL HIS SINS? WHY SHOULD HE BE CHALLENGED TO DO IT? WHY SHOULD HE MAKE RESTITUTION WHEN HE'S COMING TO CHRIST? BECAUSE GOD DESERVES THE OBEDIENCE THAT HE DEMANDS!!!
I have talked with people that have no assurance that sins are forgiven. They want to feel safe, before they're willing to commit themselves to Christ. But I believe that the only ones whom God actually witnesses by His Spirit and are born of Him, are the people, whether they say it or not, that come to Jesus Christ and say something like this, "Lord Jesus, I'm going to obey you, and love you, and serve you, and do what you want me to do, as long as I live even if I go to Hell at the end of the road, simply because YOU ARE WORTHY TO BE LOVED, AND OBEYED, AND SERVED, and I 'm not trying to make a deal with you!" Do you see the difference? Do you see the difference? Between a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt or a Micah building a chapel because God will do you good AND someone that repents for the glory of God. Why should a person come to the cross? Why should a person embrace death with Christ? Why should a person be willing to go, in identification, down to the cross and into the tomb and up again? I'll tell you why! BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY WAY THAT GOD CAN GET GLORY OUT OF A HUMAN BEING!!! If you say it's because he'll get joy or peace or blessing or success or fame then it's nothing but a Levite serving for ten shekels and a shirt. THERE IS ONLY ONE REASON FOR YOU TO GO TO THE CROSS DEAR YOUNG PERSON. And that's because until you come to the place of union with Christ in death you are defrauding the Son of God of the glory that He could get out of your life. For no flesh shall glory in His sight. And until you've understood the sanctifying work of God by the Holy Ghost taking you into union with Christ in death and burial and resurrection, you have to serve in what you have and all you have which is under the sentence of death: human personality, and human nature, and human strength, and human energy. And God will get no glory out of that! So the reason for you to go to the cross isn't that you're going to get victory, you will get victory. It isn't that you're going to have joy, you will have joy. But the reason for you to embrace the cross and press through until you know that you can testify with Paul "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal 2:20), it isn't what you're going to get out of it, but what He'll get out of it, for the glory of God. By the same token: Why aren't you pressed through to know the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Why aren't you pressed through to know the fullness of Christ? I'll tell you why? BECAUSE THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY THAT JESUS CHRIST WILL GET GLORY OUT OF A LIFE THAT HE'S REDEEMED WITH HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD IS WHEN HE CAN FILL THAT LIFE WITH HIS PRESENCE AND LIVE THROUGH HIS OWN LIFE. The genius of our faith wasn't that we were going to go through the motions like a Levite that was hired to served God. No, No! The genius of our faith was that we'd come to a place where we knew we could do nothing, and all we could do would be to present the vessel and say Lord Jesus "You'll have to fill it. And everything that's done will have to be done by You and for You." But, oh, I know so many people that are trying to know the fullness of God, so that they can use God.
THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT
A young preacher came to me down in Huntington, West Virginia. He said, "Brother Reidhead I've got a great church. I've got a wonderful Sunday School program, got a radio ministry, growing, but I feel a personal need and a personal lack, I need to be baptized with the Holy Ghost, I need to be filled with the Spirit. And someone told me God had done something for you, and I wonder if you could help me?" I looked at the fellow, and you know what he looked like? ME. Just looked like me. I just saw in him everything that was in me. You thought I was going to say me before. No, listen dear heart, if you've ever seen yourself you'll know you're never going to be anything else than you were. For in me and my flesh there's no good thing (Rom 7:18). He looked like me. He was like a fellow driving up in a big Cadillac, you know, to someone standing at the filling station, saying "Fill'r up Bub, with the highest octane you got!" Well that's the way it looked, he wanted power for his program. God is not going to be a means to anyone's end. I said, "I'm awfully sorry, I don't think that I can help you." He said, "Why?" I said, "I don't think you're ready." I said, "Well suppose you consider yourself coming up with a Cadillac, you're talked about your program, you've talked about your radio, you've talked about your Sunday School and church. It's very good. You've done wonderfully well without the power of the Holy Spirit." That's what the Chinese Christian said, you know, when he got back to China. "What impressed you most about America?" He said, "The great things Americans can accomplish without God." And he (the young preacher) accomplished a great deal, admittedly without God. Now he wanted something of power to accomplish his ends even further. I said, "No..., no, you're sitting behind the wheel and you're saying to God give me power so I can go, You won't work, You've got to slide over." But I knew that rascal, because I knew me. I said, "No, it will never do, you've got to get in the back seat." And I could see him leaning over and grabbing the wheel. "No," I said, "it will never do in the back seat." I said, "Before God will do anything for you, you know what you've go to do?" So he said, "What?" I said, "You've got to get out of the car, take the keys around, open up the trunk lid, hand the keys to the Lord Jesus, get inside the trunk, slam the lid down, whisper through the keyhole, 'Lord look, fill'r up with anything you want and you drive, it's up to you from now on.'" That's why so many people you know do not enter into the fullness of Christ. Because they want to become a Levite with ten shekels and a shirt. They've been serving Micah, but they think if they had the power of the Holy Ghost they could serve the tribe of Dan. It will never work. Never work. There's only one reason for God needing you and that's to bring you to the place where, in repentance, you've been pardoned for His glory. And in victory you've been brought to the place of death that He might reign. And in the fullness, Jesus Christ is able to live and walk in you.
Your attitude is the attitude of the Lord Himself, who said, "I can do nothing of Myself" (John 8:28). I can't speak of myself. I don't make plans for myself. My only reason for being is for the glory of God in Jesus Christ. If I were to say to you, "Come to be saved so you can go to heaven, come to the cross so that you can have joy and victory, come for the fullness of the Spirit so that you can be satisfied." I would be falling into the trap of humanism. I'm going to say to you dear friend if you're out here without Christ, you come to Jesus Christ and serve Him as long as you live whether you go to Hell at the end of the way BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY! I say to you Christian friend you come to the cross and join Him in union, in death, and enter into all the meaning of death to self in order that He can have glory. I say to you dear Christian if you do not know the fullness of the Holy Ghost, come and present your body a living sacrifice, and let Him fill you so that He can have the purpose for His coming fulfilled in you and get glory through your life. IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET OUT OF GOD, IT'S WHAT'S HE GOING TO GET OUT OF YOU. Let's be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity that makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is. Let's resign, let's tell Micah we're through. We're no longer going to be his priests serving for ten shekels and a shirt. Let's tell the tribe of Dan we're through. And let's come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail pierced Son of God and tell Him that we're going to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him, as long as we live BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!
THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN
Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies where an atheist British owner had 2000 to 3000 slaves. And the owner had said, "No preacher, no clergyman, will ever stay on this island. If he's ship wrecked we'll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave, but he's never going to talk to any of us about God, I'm through with all that nonsense." Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic and there to live and die without hearing of Christ. In the late 1700's a British planter owned an entire island in the West Indies off the coast of South America. Several thousand black slaves toiled in the sugar cane fields under the burning sun. The atheist planter vowed that no missionary would ever set foot on the island to talk about God. 3000 slaves were doomed to live and die without hearing of Christ. Two young Germans in their 20's from the Moravians sect heard about their plight. They sold themselves to the British planter for the standard price for a male slave used the money they received for their sale to purchase passage to the West Indies. The miserly atheist planter would not even transport them. The Moravian community from Herrenhut came to see the two lads off, who would never return again, having freely sold themselves into a lifetime of slavery. As a member of the slave community they would witness as Christians to the love of God. Family members were emotional, weeping. Was their extreme sacrifice wise? Was it necessary? As the ship slipped away with the tide and the gap widened. The housings had been cast off and were curled up on the pier. The young men saw the widening gap. They linked arms, raised their hands and shouted across the spreading gap "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering." This became the call of Moravian missions. And this is our only reason for being...that the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering! Amen.

We've Just Made It Easier....

2008-02-12T08:55:00.000-06:00

for you to sponsor a child from Uganda (or anywhere else). All you have to do is click on the sponsor button over on the right and you can view photos of beautiful Ugandan children who need to know Jesus. They need to feel his love in a tangible way- through food in their bellies and clothes on their backs.

James 2:15-17:
For instance, you come upon a brother or sister dressed in rags and half-starved
and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup--where does that get you?
Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

Where are your acts for God? Can you spare $32 a month and a little time to write encouraging letters to a child in need?

Ode to a Lurker

2008-02-08T22:06:00.000-06:00

Lurk, lurk, lurk
Read, read, read
But you will not comment, will you, O Lurker?

Anyway, I've got a deep philosophical question for you. It's one of those questions that is probably better asked in writing because you have more time to contemplate the answer. Of course, you may not be able to answer it at all... which is what I guess makes it a deep philosophical question. Anyway, here it is:

Are you in submission to God?

Have you ever had something gnawing at you right below your subconscience that you know is the Holy Spirit working in you to effect some action or change? What did you do... stifle it, ignore it, flirt with it and then send it packing, or did you embrace it and go to work? You've heard the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. What is your work? What is the work that you do for the God who gave you breath? Being a parent, having a job, and being a light in the world may equate to submission.... I'm not trying to say you're slacking or anything, but to whom much is given much is required. I think I've heard that somewhere anyway. Is there something in your life that you've put off limits to God? Maybe you've said, "I'll do anything except that." If so,
God's plan will still be accomplished. He really doesn't need us individually, but we need Him and we are blessed in doing his work.

Have you ever heard of anyone who regretted following God's leading in his life? I think Paul is on record as saying, "It's a good thing." Or maybe that was Martha Stewart. In any case, I know how much we've been blessed by focusing our attention more strictly upon things that are profitable to the kingdom.

Blogging For Compassion

2008-02-06T09:58:00.001-06:00

You may have noticed the Blog Uganda widget in my sidebar. Please allow me to explain it before you begin browsing through the blogs it links to.

I am a believer in the work of Compassion. Through Compassion, our family has met a young boy named Miquieas. My sons are always on the look-out for paper items that they can send to Miquieas. Yesterday, they picked up some stickers while we were in town that will be included with the next letter we send. Compassion International allows them to develop real compassion by getting to know a child in real need. The $32 that we send to Compassion each month is spent on Miquieas.... he is provided with clothing, food, school, and medical attention. We also have the opportunity to send birthday and Christmas gifts, as well as gifts for his family.

Compassion International is sponsoring a trip to Uganda for several American bloggers who have lots of readers. These bloggers will see first-hand what Compassion does for children and translate these things into videos, photographs, and online journal entries. They will be our eyes and show us things that we cannot see for ourselves. And hopefully many children will be sponsored because of their work.

Many of the blogs you will link to are not blogs that I normally read. Their views are not necessarily my views. But I believe that during this trip, these bloggers afford us an excellent opportunity to see the world as we cannot see it ourselves. I believe that God will use this blogging trip to change hearts toward impoverished children around the world.

It's the last one tonight, I promise!

2008-02-02T20:34:00.000-06:00

I absolutely adore this photo of Dad and his "Glo-bug". She's old enough now respond with "Dad, I'm not a bug, I'm Doria."

If You Give A Kid A Camera....

2008-02-02T17:32:00.000-06:00

It's hard to remember when G was this little.

Ummm..... this must have been from a trip to the circus 3 years ago. Or maybe there's a 5th child that I've forgotten about.

I love this photo of Noah. We went to Dauphin Island just before Hurricane Katrina came and wiped away the house we stayed in.

Food from a wedding reception.
A random turtle Dad found in the road....

Friends with Talent

2008-02-02T17:17:00.000-06:00

I've been in bed sick all day. I'm a little bored. I don't feel much like reading because my head starts to spin, so I've been looking through our photos. I'll probably be posting more later.

Our home had no front deck when were preparing to purchase it. Fortunately, we have a friend who is skilled at carpentry. He allowed Nicholas to help him whenever possible, and even made the kids a gift with his leftovers.

"Just because there is a mouse in the cookie jar does not make it a cookie."

2008-02-01T13:52:00.000-06:00

All people who follow Christ are “Christians”, but not all people who call themselves “Christians” follow Christ. Now if that is clear as mud, let me explain. There are people who profess to be “Christians” who are closer to practicing atheists. You’ve seen them, you’ve heard of them, and you may even be one of them! Their fruits or actions are not consistent with those of a person who has been freed from the shackles of sin. They are “Christians” in name only. They are hopeless slaves to sin. They lack the fruits of the spirit, which are: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (see Galatians 5:22-23). They have a type of religion, but it is fraudulent. They are the flea market Gucci purse that, when you look inside, is cheaply made of vinyl.

You must understand this, if you are to overcome one of the most common arguments against placing one’s faith and hope in Christ. Many non-Christians will say that we are hypocrites or that Christians are just as wicked as everyone else in the world. Well, you have to admit that sure seems the case, too many times. To ignore this perception, only damages the credibility of your witness. Don’t attempt to defend the in-defensible. Isn’t it odd that the godless don’t have much trouble seeing those who hypocritically profess to follow Christ, yet their supposed “brothers and sisters in Christ” seem oblivious or unable to address the inconsistencies in their lives?

Personally, I don’t automatically assume the spiritual condition of those who profess to follow Christ, because I don’t want my assumptions to be used by them to help silence the Holy Spirit who may be bringing conviction in their soul. That probably annoys some folks, but it seems less harmful to me that to assume that all people who say they are “Christians” actually have saving faith.

If you admit that many people who claim to be “Christians” are not (see Matthew 7:21), you will have better credibility when sharing the Gospel with those who are having a difficult time seeing past the hypocrisy of some professing “Christians” and the apparent impotence of the saving power of Christ.

WHAT WE'RE NOT DOING....

2008-01-29T19:10:00.000-06:00

Since my last post, Scott has had some explaining to do to friends, relatives and co-workers. Seems everyone has some idea of what my last cryptic post was about.

So, it is time to clear some things up.

We are not planning to move.
Scott is not planning to switch jobs.
Our family is not, I repeat- NOT planning to join the circus.
We will not be pursuing martyrdom or a mission trip.

Notice that I say, "not planning" and "not pursuing". If the Lord leads us to do these things, we will. But we are most definitely not setting out to do them.

This really doesn't have anything to do with this post, but here is a link to a story about a wonderful family that we are glad to call friends:

http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/vumcpub/index.html?pubID=7&articleID=995

Pondering the Possibilities.....

2008-01-25T09:49:00.000-06:00

There have been times in my life when I have been inexplicably driven to action. Last year when we were getting rid of all the clutter in our lives was one of those times. Months before the BIG change, Scott and I both began gathering things around the house to get rid of. We did it compulsively. It started with a couple of things and soon encompassed the entire garage full of junk. On the day of our yardsale, Scott kept on bringing out more stuff that I never thought I would see him let go of. We had no idea what was coming. I am feeling it again...

We have been compulsively cleaning and reorganizing the house. We've been establishing routines that help to maintain order. We've been firm and consistent in disciplining the children. Order is necessary for change to be well received. We expect change. We know that God once again has something for us to do that we never thought we would do. The Lord has poured out blessing after blessing upon our family. We are so very excited about his calling.

Yes, I am being vague. These things should be shared with family before we divulge it on a public blog. At this time, there are so many uncertainties that it would be impossible to put into words what we are expecting.

Oh, and "Roy Rogers" now lives at my house. He has an admirer, too.

Passover Seder

2008-01-11T00:54:00.000-06:00

We haven't forgotten about you all, really. We've just been very busy with studying, vacationing, and the Lord's work. We have a quick question...

Do you celebrate Passover? Have you ever?

How many gifts will you remember next year?

2007-12-28T23:07:00.000-06:00

He used a tooth of a comb as a needle to sew with.

You want to check out both of these posts...

Here is a second post with pictures....

Anatomy According to Gloria

2007-12-28T14:52:00.000-06:00

Note the spleen covering the toes, and the lung over the calf. Boy, do we have a lot of ground to cover!

Awesome hair!

2007-12-28T14:39:00.000-06:00

Noah likes to twirl his hair around his finger. It's something that his father used to do back when his hair was long enough to do such a thing. We hadn't really noticed it until Noah decided to do some Bible reading for us during our weekly family meeting. He sat up, pulled out his Bible, & bent his head over- we were amazed. His hair is very straight, so all the curls you see in the photo were caused by his twirling. It may be time for a haircut!

The Kids Sporting Their New Eyeglasses

2007-12-19T00:03:00.000-06:00

Noah asked several times if I would take him to an eye doctor- he said his eyes were watery. I assumed it was an allergy problem, so I put the doctor's visit off for a while. One day last week, however, I noticed that he was having a really hard time doing his schoolwork. He kept rubbing his eyes, and at one point became frustrated with it and went to bed. "Hmmm," I thought, "maybe there is something to what he says." I took him to the eye doctor that morning, and sure enough, the kid is far-sighted. The watery eyes are caused by him struggling to bring his eyes into focus and keeping them open for too long. That's him in the middle.

Imagine my surprise when on a whim I asked the doctor for a vision screening for the other children. Elijah's vision is great, but Nicholas is another story. He is far-sighted and both eyes have astigmatisms. The doctor actually winced when he attempted to read the largest row of letters. I felt like such a bad mom- he's 10 years old and I never noticed he had trouble seeing!

Both of the boys chose glasses that look like their father's. I can't find a picture of Scott in his right now or I'd post it. It's too cute! Elijah really wants glasses- he's been running into things on purpose and rubbing his eyes a lot in an effort to show me how poor his eyesight is. I offered to get him some glasses without lenses, but that won't do.

Gloria wouldn't have anything to do with the eye doctor or the vision screening equipment. She told the doc, "Maybe when I'm older..."

You Can Have All This World

2007-12-16T21:51:00.000-06:00

It was an odd day. Sunday School started with 4 of the kids telling us how they either shared or attempted to share their faith over the last week. We'd encouraged them before to be available to be used of God, but nothing ever became of it. Honestly, they tend to be (like most teenagers) somewhat self-centered. This week was different, though. They shared with brothers, strangers at the mall, and a lone girl at the lunch table at school. I think they've begun to see what a dark world it is, and they've started to see the people around them who are mired in that darkness.

For our part, the day should have consisted of church and a birthday party. One of the youth had a surprise birthday party at his home. Among the attendants was one extraordinarily out of place grad student studying cancer biology at a very prestigious university. By her own admission, she believes there is a God but she chooses not to study or explore beyond that basic belief. I think this is mostly out of a fear that she will find it to be incongruous with her scientific studies. She is very smart, but at the same time so sad. It is noble to want to cure cancer, but if the pursuit of that cure means that you will not consider the Creator, what have you gained?
She has chosen to ignore the question of God's plan for her because she cannot apply her scientific theory to decipher it. It was an interesting and lengthy, albeit very friendly, debate. She employed the typical evolution talking points and attempted to make broad, sweeping generalizations about people who believe in creation. It was a looong birthday party. Many times I looked over and saw Scott with his contemplative look upon his face, carefully choosing his words. I suspect that this was the first time she entered into a religious debate with someone who was knowledgeable and well-studied enough to not get flustered and give up. Scott has never been one to nod politely and then ask after the health of the family pets when a difficult topic comes up. There were some folks who knew her who would walk into the room, listen for a bit, chuckle, then give up on trying to follow the conversation and leave. As for me, I engaged in a pleasant side conversation with the young lady's father while we both listened to the debate. Our prayer for this girl is that she will at least seek to know the Father and that her intellect won't be an insurmountable stumbling block. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

We left the party and went out to buy a tree- a Christmas tree to be specific. Yes, I know it is late, but frankly, it is not very important to us and we have not had the time to go and purchase a tree. We wanted a live tree, and it is not something that I could easily go out and do without my strong husband there. First we went to Lowes. They had a few wreaths, but no tree. Next we went to Home Depot. I stayed in the car with the kids while Scott went in. There remained one decent-looking tree, and two that looked like they got in a fight with a woodchipper and lost. Scott also had to get a stand- he found one without a price and brought it over to the cash register in the little enclosed stand in the garden center. Hunched over and crying was a girl in a Home Depot apron. Scott asked if she was alright, and she said she was. He then asked if she was crying, but she insisted that she wasn't. His look of disbelief probably convicted her to come clean- she was crying after all. She went on to share how her mother left her family and has turned her back on God. She was very nice, and Scott felt so sad for her. She was struggling with how to deal with her family situation and her relationship with her mother in particular. She had some righteous anger. Scott was the only customer that had been there all evening buying the last sale-able Christmas tree. We believe this was another divine appointment. Scott was struck by her story of sitting in the church parking lot of the church her family used to go to wanting to go in but afraid of what people would say or think. She could not bring herself to go inside. She was very aware of the fact that her mother was turning her back on eternal things for temporary lust of the flesh. She spoke with a wisdom uncommon among 20 year olds, but that was gained as she witnessed the collapse of her parents' marriage. She did most of the talking, Scott was just there to listen and console. He talked about how God gives us free will, and as much as we'd like to make choices for our family members or change the choices they have made, we can't do that. He felt confident in saying that one day her mother will look at what she gave away and how she hurt her family and will grieve. Still, it is not fair that we grieve now for the poor exercising of their free will. Scott told her about how whenever we drive into Knoxville and we pass the car dealership where my dad works, he looks over and sees tears on my face. It is difficult for those who are abiding in Christ because we know what our loved ones are missing. We mourn for them now, while they continue on seemingly ignorant of the pain that they have caused to the people that they once professed to have loved.

Hillbilly Meets Mafia

2007-12-04T22:09:00.000-06:00

Scott's family.

My family.

Quilting Questions

2007-12-04T15:19:00.000-06:00

Once again, I am contemplating work on a project started by one of our grandmothers. These nine patch quilt squares were made by my Mamaw Chandler.

Yep, after years of vaguely referring to her as "my grandmother," I am 'fessing up to my hillbilly roots. I had two Mamaws, each called by "mamaw" and her last name. My family came from the hills pretty recently. "We" were among the last of the folks kicked out of Cades Cove, and I remember the anger and indignation in my grandmother's voice as she would tell us about the unfair price her family was forced to accept for their farm.

So anyhow, I married up. We have a beautiful photograph of my mother-in-law at the age of 8 or 9 wearing a fancy white gown with matching white gloves and holding a bouquet of roses. Similarly, we have a photograph of my mother wearing a flour sack and holding a dead chicken. Well, okay, we don't actually have possession of that one, but it is rumored to exist.

But anyway, back to the quilt. These squares were made from satin scraps that my grandmother brought home from the furriers where she worked sewing liners for fur coats. My question is this: What kind of fabric should I use to attach these squares to each other? I am thinking that maybe I should use satin, but someone said that would be a mistake. That same someone didn't offer any alternatives, though. Does anyone know?

Adoption

2007-12-04T10:42:00.000-06:00

I have always been interested in adoption. ALWAYS.

As a teenager, I purchased a used set of books from a library sale entitled "The Adoptive Family." My friends thought I was nuts. So it's not surprising that I sometimes browse adoption websites. Over the years, I have looked into all manner of domestic and international adoptions. I've checked out the requirements, notified my husband of which ones we qualify for, and even told him that I've picked out a new kid or two. Always kind of joking, but also "feeling out the waters," so to speak.

This morning, I awoke early with a feeling that I should spend some volunteer time at an orphanage. I know that logically, we just don't have time for me to go out and do something like that. My husband works a full-time job in addition to being the youth pastor at our church. I homeschool our children, so I don't have any time without the kids to volunteer. Nevertheless, I got online at 5:30 this morning to google orphanages/children's homes close to us. There really aren't any, so I ended up browsing the list of children available for adoption. I looked at "special needs/older" kids, because it is safe- most of adoptions specify homes with no other children.

I say all of this to say that this morning, I "met" a child online who has been on my mind all day. I've cried because I feel a connection, illogical though it may be. He is one year older than my oldest son. He comes from a separated sibling group and wants to be placed in a home with other children. He loves taking care of plants and animals and would love to live somewhere that has woods to explore.

I really don't know where I'm going with this post. I'm sure that my husband doesn't feel called to adopt. I just needed to get my thoughts out somewhere.

While Strolling Through the Woods...

2007-12-03T15:46:00.000-06:00

I found some sort of strange primitive fence. You may have to enlarge the photo to see it well.

It turns out that my kids really are doing something when they are playing in the woods. They have made some wonderful trails, as well.

I had a lot of work to do, so I only snapped a couple of quick photos. I plan to go back and get pictures of some of the nice trails, too.

Open Letter to a Friend

2007-11-26T16:08:00.000-06:00

While shopping after church yesterday, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while. In a two minute conversation while my children were pushing my cart into other shoppers, she told me some very disturbing news. Here is what I wish I had been able to say to her. Maybe I'll still get the chance, maybe she'll read it here, or maybe it applies to more people than just her. Maybe some of you will join me in praying for my friend.

Open Letter to a Friend

You are still grieving the unexpected loss of your brother. You are very emotional right now, and you shouldn't be rushing to make any important decisions. When you say that the loss of your brother has pushed you to decide that "life is too short" to waste - via being held back in your worship of God... I don't understand that. I'm sure there is more to the story, but since this is what you've told me.... How about life being too short to completely shatter the foundation of your children's existence? How about life being too short to be selfishly focused on your grief? So focused on your own self, in fact, that others are enduring huge storms because of it, and you say that you know you have made the right decision. You won't be held back anymore, you say. Where is God here? He's not at the center of your life.

Your situation does not meet the biblical requirements for divorce, if what you told me is a true representation of the situation. I don't hesitate to say this because you are a professing Christian. Your husband is, by all appearances, a loving husband. I know him to be a wonderful father. I've often stood in admiration of his relationships with his children. Your daughter, a young woman now, still very much needs the stability of her parents. Most importantly, she needs to see that her mother has a close relationship with God. Instead she is seeing some scary stuff from her parents and I am sure she is having a difficult time reconciling what she's been taught by you with what she sees the two of you doing now.

Your family has been ripped apart. How can this be God's will? Yes, I will indeed pray for you as you asked. I am praying that you put God in the center. I am praying that you can separate your feelings of grief and anxiety (stemming from your brother's death) from your relationship with your husband. I am praying that you don't go through with this divorce, that you will come back humbled and willing to work through the problems in your marriage.

Meat & Potatoes

2007-11-25T22:47:00.000-06:00

2007-11-24T15:35:00.001-06:00

Lately I’ve had many things swirling around in my head. God has taught me some amazing lessons that I desire to share with anyone who cares to listen. The problem is, when I sit down to write about it all, the words don’t come. I write a little, but it comes out sounding like a second-grade essay without the cute-factor. I’ve always loved to write and fancied myself pretty good at it. So why won’t the words come to express what is in my heart?

Perhaps I have become prideful of my writing. Is this God’s work- humbling me through my ineloquence? It is definitely humbling to produce poorly written blog posts that seem to completely miss the messages that I am trying to convey.

Or could it be that the things I wish to write simply shouldn’t be written? I pray about what to say on this blog. So when the words don’t come, is it that God doesn’t want me to say what I want to say? Should I pray for new direction?

Showers of Blessings

2007-11-23T04:37:00.000-06:00

1Ch 16:8-10 Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.

This Thanksgiving, the holiday was less about my forefathers in this land and more about giving thanks to my Father in heaven. I used to dread the time when we would go around the table and say what we were thankful for, but this year, my heart was so full of things to be thankful for that I kind of looked forward to it. And you know what? No one asked.

God has done wondrous works in my heart. His love overflows me. '

What are you thankful for?