This is so awesome!
Snow! January 8, 2010
Well… we got snow and then we didn’t.
Its pretty and white on the grass. Some of the side streets are still covered and because its so cold, it won’t be melting right away, but, its not been a good snow. There hasn’t been much more than a dusting, honestly. And its that dry type of snow. Not good for making a snow ball. But Jordan had fun anyway. We played tic-tac-toe on the sidewalk. She insisted on making a snow angel, which actually turned out kinda pretty. She wrote her name.
Then, I headed off to work when everyone else was trying to make their way home. Slow going, but I made it to work only fifteen minutes late. Not horrible. And the drive home was equally uneventful, but much quicker, I must say, since it was LATE or EARLY whichever you wanna say. Thank you Lord for keeping me safe!
We’re probably not gonna get anymore real snow this go around. Disappointing! I want some real snow! Maybe next time!
So…
The Good, Bad and the Ugly 2009 is going… going… almost gone! December 31, 2009
2009 brought some challenges, hard times and some new to our lives. What a rollercoaster of a year! Whew!
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My sister Dalynn passed away in March of leukemia
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Our dog Keeper died in April from doggie lymphoma
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My mother bailed on her plans to move with my grandmother and my uncle, here to Tennessee from Oregon, so that we could take care of them.
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We celebrated our 7 year anniversary!
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My sister Celia got married!!! Paul is a great brother-in-law! Welcome to the family!
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Bill’s sister, Susie, died in June
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We attended the very last service (in the old location) of Bill’s ‘family church’ in Lake Wales, Florida. They sold the buildings to someone else. It just happened that we decided to go to the church service while we were down there for Susie’s funeral.
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We moved into an apartment in July. Scaling down from a 4 bdrm, VERY drafty house, to a two bedroom. The good is the electric bill went from hundreds to less than one hundred. The bad is its a small, cramped space, with no yard, no play area, and no sidewalks anywhere to walk from point A to point B. Of course, the sidewalk thing is almost universal for all of Knoxville (and the entire South US). What’s that all about anyway???
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We got to go to a USF game this year.
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We had a quiet end of the year, spent some time with Bill’s brother, exchanged a few presents and eagerly anticipated the close to 2009.
So… while I don’t celebrate New Year’s. I don’t party and will be working when the clock strikes midnight… I’m not sad to see ya go 2009! Not even a little bit!!!
Christians and Shabbat December 30, 2009
“And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”
Mark 2:27, 28
Christians are not obligated to celebrate the Jewish Shabbat (sabbath), however, the article below does bring a reminder to all Christians that we’re free in Christ to observe or not observe holy days. Some of my dear Christian sisters seem to be misunderstanding this, believing instead that we’re to follow after the Mosaic law, the Old Covenant, even going so far as to proclaim death upon those who aren’t following the Fourth Commandment. While I choose (at this time) not to celebrate the Shabbat, I do think its a lovely tradition, if done without man’s tradition attached to it. If we set aside a day of worship and rest for our Lord, so be it. But I pray that we will desist from lambasting each other over observing or not observing. Agape dear ones!
Christians and Shabbat
Sending Our Children to Caesar? December 29, 2009
“Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.” – Adolf Hitler
“Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday school, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?” – Charles F. Potter, Humanism: A New Religion 1930 p.128
“I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers that correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being… The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and new — the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent with the promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of ‘love thy neighbor’ will finally be achieved.” - John J. Dunphy, The Humanist, Jan. 1983 p.26
(Found at Public school: Be afraid, be very afraid; Defending.Contending. Blog)
To Celebrate or Not To Celebrate – Is That The Question? December 24, 2009
When I think of the above question, all I can hear in my head is the lyrics of an old soft rock ballad,
Torn between two lovers, feelin’ like a fool
Lovin’ both of you is breakin’ all the rules
Torn between two lovers, feelin’ like a fool
Lovin’ you both is breakin’ all the rules
What do I mean? Well… I have been celebrating Christmas for about 20 years, but it wasn’t always that way. I grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness (see my About Me page for an indepth testimony) and if there’s one thing that Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t do that is “spot on” regarding the Bible and the earliest church history, its celebrate Christmas (or most all other holidays).
Here in lies the problem. Once enmeshed in a situation, compromising what you know to be truth, how do you stand up and say no? I mean… this would be an entirely different situation, if I was the head of my household (the husband, the man of the house). I wouldn’t even be questioning what to do… but in a situation as I’m in, being the wife (the submissive one, the defender of truth – but not the authoritarian) I’ve… well… had some less than comfortable situations in my home.
I will say this: My hubby is a very wise, God-fearing man and he is trying his best to separate his memories and emotions of childhood with God’s word. We are not putting up a tree. We are not decorating. We are not including “Santa” and any other mythical symbols. We are still having a family dinner and exchanging presents this year.
To me, this is still too much involvement, because of its association, but for now, I’m trying to stay quiet. Waiting on God’s leading.
If you’d like to know more about the Pagan origins of Christmas, my sister in Christ, has an especially interesting article on her blog. A post written by a “pagan” as the author plainly calls herself. Very interesting.
What A Pagan Would Like To Show Us Christians
Mirrors Don’t Lie December 19, 2009
My daughter, Jordan, is my little mirror. And I’ve found alot of the time that mirror reflects that I’m not a very nice person. Often she’ll do something that I know she’s parroting me having said or done and I’ll correct her. Then, she’ll correct me with… ‘but you did (or said) it Mommy.’ Or she’ll overhear me having said something I’ve told her is not a nice word. She’s going on five now and she hears EVERYTHING! She takes this as her cue to make me aware that ‘stupid is a bad word, Mommy’ or ‘hate is a bad word, Mommy’ or whatever else it is that I’ve said that my husband and I have told her we don’t want her to say. <sigh>
I grew up hearing ’because I said so, that’s why’. But, does the “do what I said, not what I do” concept really play out in a child’s world? What kid follows their parents’ words more than their parents’ actions? The article below has some very poignant thoughts that stirred my heart. What will I do with them? Spend some time on my knees before my Lord.
Should Christians Sue Others? December 18, 2009
I’m appalled at the reaction of those who say they are Christians who believe that its okay to sue others. What is the ridiculous notion that just because it says not to take a brother to a worldly court, but rather to the elders, that this means its okay to sue others who aren’t in the faith?
- What happened to loving our neighbor?
- What happened to turning the cheek?
- Giving our coat and our cloak too?
- Showing love to our enemies?
- Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
Seriously… what would Jesus do? I can’t imagine Jesus insisting that restitution be made for his losses. He taught his followers to give unto death. Not take.
The Law and the Christian December 16, 2009
A couple weeks ago, I was stimulated to truly study the Sabbath (seventh day), after reading a post from a friend of mine and her observance of the Sabbath.
I must say I immediately had questions, but the first answers seemed lacking, almost flippant in their depth, rather than well thought out. So… armed with my Bible and several lovely Bible tools (concordance, word study lexicon and early Christian dictionary) I set out to read more on the subject of the Sabbath. My first conclusion was that the Bible and the early Christians who lived just after the 1st century Christians were unsupportive of the Sabbath. I then expanded my search to include blogs, articles and sermons on this subject.
Choosing blogs, artciles and sermons from both perspectives, I read with an earnest and sincere heart, wanting to understand God’s truth on the matter. I must say that the arguments for the Sabbath were well layed out and very swaying, but in the end, they do not hold up to God’s full truth. In fact, they leave out all that the Apostle Paul had to say regarding the law of Moses and the law of Christ, except where it appears to lean toward his approval of the continuing under the law of Moses.
Too, I couldn’t get past the review of my readings of the early Christians who vehemently warned against Christians following the Sabbath (and the law of Moses). Met with the argument that “what the early Christians wrote can’t be used, because it isn’t the Bible”… I can only scratch my head. I agree that what was written by the early Christians (1st-3rd) centuries that is not included in the Bible is not in the Bible.
However…
- these same brothers who wrote can be used to construct the entire Bible in their writings, they quoted it so often.
- these are the same brothers who eventually put the Bible together as we know it today.
- some of the earliest of these were direct disciples to the apostles themselves.
Can we say with some certainty that they were correct? If what they wrote coincides with scripture, I think we can be fairly certain of their writings. And I do believe they had a better understanding of the writings than we do in most cases, since they understood the language.
So… I came to a conclusion on the subject of whether the Christian is to follow the law of Moses. But, before I could write the subject up completely, another sister had her findings completed and posted on her blog. Since she wrote her blog article so eloquently, I felt that I would share a link to her’s and simply say here that I am in full agreement with what she wrote. I couldn’t have said it better or even nearly as completely as she did! I hope you’ll visit.
