April 2013 – The Welcome Home

Treading where…

I wanted to go back and grab a couple of entries…. I’m linking back to these to show just how far society has gone in just a very short time. In light of one of Voddie Baucham’s keynotes at the Christian Heritage Homeschool Conference this past weekend: ‘ Gay is NOT the new Black ,’ I’ve decided to repost a couple of things I originally posted in my blog in 2006. My desire is not to be sensational, alarmist or divisive, but to encourage very wise and careful thought and examination regarding the avalanche of lies, myths and social/societal manipulation. And, truly, it is going on. And, further, the church is being duped into following right along swallowing and promoting lies regarding this volatile issue. Let us be in the Word and on our knees.

Another slicing of a lie February 10, 2006

Remember: repeat a lie often enough, and people will begin to permit it to be common and then begin to accept it as truth. Such is the case with the so-called “homosexual movement.” This, from Worldnet Daily: “A leading homosexual activist group is blaming a deranged teenager’s violent rampage through a “gay” bar in Massachusetts on “hatred and loathing” fueled by Christian groups and leaders such as James Dobson.” And then, the article went on to describe the individual responsible for the attack. In addition to the mean-spirited and unfounded attack on Christian individuals and groups, there was a description of items found in the home of the attacker. There was no mention finding a Bible, or a Focus on the Family Magazine or anything else remotely “Christian.” So, why the slander against Christians for the atrocious behaviour of that individual? I’ll tell you why… contrary to the claim by Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, that “The hatred and loathing fueling this… vicious attack on gay men in New Bedford is not innate, it is learned… And who is teaching it? Leaders of the so-called Christian right, that’s who. Individuals like James Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, the Rev. Pat Robertson and their ilk are obsessed with homosexuality.” Do you see the conditioning? Do you see the dialectic praxis? The rant that “their ilk are obsessed with homosexuality.”

What a lie and that lie is gaining momentum day by day. The truth is not that Christians are obsessed with homosexuality, but rather that people who commit homosexual acts are obsessed with homosexuality! Christians simply present a dilemma to those who promote homosexuality and the dilemma is that there is a war in the conscience of those who choose acts that are in conflict with God’s moral laws. And to combat the conflict or to deaden it, they must necessarily lash out at those who reflect God’s design—they have to hate Christians because Christians represent the very One they cannot deny—but they must deny God in order to continue on the immoral path they travel. Bullies always throw stones, they always attempt to discredit those they seek to intimidate so that they can continue garnering support even through intimidation in an attempt to validate themselves and their plan and then to saturate it with victimization or the emotionally laced oppression intensifies the effect of the protest and the charge . That young man with his swastika tattoo and with the “Neo-Nazi” and white supremacist materials in his home is no representative of Christians. And they know it. Clever and sly—they know it. That was just a bit of harassment aimed at further demonizing and marginalizing Christians and ultimately attacking the Creator—the One they must face

Suspending adulterers February 8, 2006

In the news…

Seems that in Florida, according to this article, because of the number of incidents and the resulting problems, Sheriff’s deputies who get caught cheating on their spouses or sleeping with another person’s spouse in Pinellas County, Fla., will be suspended from work for the behavior.” I couldn’t agree more that there ought to be consequences. In fact, I’m wondering if there’d be a dramatic decrease in the number of cases of adultery if they were suspended… from freeway overpasses. [note: just imagine… adulterers suspended from overpasses would serve as a deterrent. This was not intended to be mean-spirited]

I’ve had lots of time to read magazines in waiting rooms lately and decided I’ve been there too often when the same issues of magazines are still on the tables or in the magazine racks. So, yesterday I was glad to have David Kupelian’s book The Marketing of Evil with me. I wish I could properly convey the absolutely incredible value of this book as it is truly a “must read” book. Really! Order it and read the book!! Even reading the first pages of the book will refute the lies and expose the gross manipulation that permeates society. The book is well written, well documented and will, no doubt, forever change the way things are perceived. The exposing of lies, the uncovering of a cleverly orchestrated agenda, and the explanations for countless atrocities, trends and beliefs will leave readers contemplating for hours the incredible influence of media to perpetrate evil. But the trickiest part is that the evil is accepted as light and truth; the lies are cleverly designed to appeal to your mind and emotions and convince you of truth—but it’s not truth at all. What I am saying probably sounds like some unfounded, garbled conspiracy theory, but as I stated a moment ago, this book is no conspiracy—but it certainly does expose the agenda of those who hate God, those who hate good and Truth, those who seek to cover their own consciences by assaulting those who expose them. Taking a stand against things that are accepted by many people is a sometimes risky thing to do—risky if one is concerned about personal status or if one is concerned about offending critics. I’m not concerned about them. I *am* concerned if I offend a brother (or sister) in the LORD—for I know first hand that “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.” (Proverbs 18.19)

Chore sticks…

teacuppamela

A clean home is a happy home. I know, I know, if ever there was a guilt inducing statement, that is it! But, seriously, think with me for a moment… consider some of the very best homemaker feelings/accomplishments. Doesn’t a ship-shape-top-to-bottom tidy give you a great feeling? How about a thoroughly cleaned out garage, a freshly cleaned and ordered pantry, fridge or bedroom closet? If you stop and think about these sorts of things, you’ll probably quickly remember how great it felt and how smoothly things seemed to run in your home. Remember?

With the advent of our son getting married a couple of weeks ago, a bit of space was freed up in our home. And, well, as you can imagine (especially if you’ve got a lot of children still home), the ideas and possibilities seemed to explode and the enthusiasm to clean out, paint, rearrange and clean up bedrooms was at an all time high. And at the end of a few days, when the bulk of the work was completed, the bedrooms were nearly all set up. Fresh and clean… and happy.

I have an idea for you… something that might add a little fun to your cleaning schedule — and maybe even to help you set up a cleaning schedule and give you some time saving ideas, to give you some inspiration and to make it fun.

You’re going to need a few supplies, first. I’d suggest that you get a binder or a piece of paper that you’ll add to your kitchen binder / log / whatever. Make a list of all the different chores you know must be done. Then, go back an prioritize the list into groupings of least to most important (or vice versa). The reason I’m suggesting that you write this down in a binder is that you’ll then have a written record that you can consult every time you’re going to do seasonal chores or monthly chores. If you don’t have a kitchen binder or a home/time management binder, then, most sincerely, I’d suggest that you get one, and begin to load it up with your family/home information, plans, important lists, etc. And, yes, I do mean paper, pens and a plastic/metal 3-ring binder. You’ll keep this with your cookbooks, etc.

After you’ve written your necessary chores list and arranged them in some order of importance, then you’ll need to get some wide craft sticks or tongue depressors and two jars. Then, write the chores – individually – on the sticks. I have written with Sharpie pens so that the ink won’t run if the sticks get wet – and I can reuse them many times this way. I may give an estimated time to complete the chore – or an asterisk on the stick to indicate importance or priority.

It really doesn’t matter what you do, it’s just a matter of doing what you know you must do and determine to get those things done. This stick method is but one method you might use.

This isn’t meant to put you in some sort of chore bondage, or to dictate that you must do it this way — and, believe me, this method is not the key you’ve been searching for to get your house in order once and for all. The order — once and for all — deal doesn’t exist. But you can learn ways to bring about a semblance of order that makes for a more smoothly run home and a more orderly way of keeping and caring for the things we all need to have/use in our homes.

So, maybe you’ve got the idea of making the lists in the binder and you’ve even imagined that you could write out the chores on the sticks… now what? Simple put the sticks — as many as your chore load dictates — in a jar. And then, establish a cleaning segment of every day and pick sticks each time, do the task on the stick, move on to another and another as time allows. STOP working when your allotted cleaning time is up. Plan to work the next day and the next — starting and stopping at the planned time, and so on, until the jobs you need to complete have all been completed. Put the completed chore stick into the empty jar and see how quickly you can get the sticks transferred from the first jar to the next. After a few days, you’ll be amazed at how much you can do AND how much you’ve gotten done. Save the sticks in your cabinet for the next overall house deep-cleaning and a couple of months (you can also make chore sticks for daily work or weekly/monthly work).

This will go much faster if you’ll mobilize your troops! Seriously! Teach your children to love to work and to work hard at it! Your attitude and zeal will be very motivating for them. And the daily allotted time deal? It’s a real loving incentive and doesn’t break morale —if— you’ll but stick to it. God bless you and your clean, happy home.

When God Intervenes

teacuppamela

Do you ever stop and wonder what the Lord has spared you from facing or what things He prevented or protected you from? Have you ever wondered about ‘near misses’ or things that would have happened had God not intervened on your behalf?

I’ve been thinking about these sorts of things again today as I reflect on an incident that happened yesterday. I’d changed the sheets and bedding and was just finishing tucking in the quilt when something caught on my shoe. Looking down to see what it was, I could find nothing and so I got down to smooth my hand over the carpet to feel for whatever it was that had caught on my shoe. Much to my surprise (and amazement, really!), there on the carpet was a needle. I marveled… here I had been sick in bed for days, many times a day up to the bathroom or out to the kitchen and back to bed again, day after day. And, day after day that needle had to have been right there — right there were I stepped down over and over again — but, obviously, I never stepped on it.

Now, if you know me, you’d know that this is one of the things I am nearly psycho over: needles. Sewing needles, that is. I’m generally meticulously careful to keep them put away, and everyone in my family hears this line when anyone is sewing: Have you ever heard about the times when I was a little girl? They glaze over and nod, mmm hmmm — probably thankful I don’t repeat the whole tale. But they know it.

For when I was a little girl, we’d just moved into a new home and as I was putting things away in my new bedroom closet, I felt the stick of a needle in my foot. Shocked, I went to tell my mother that I thought I’d just stepped on a needle! Thus, a trip to the hospital where an x-ray revealed that, indeed, I’d stepped on that needle and it had broken in my foot and needed to be surgically removed. Obviously not too traumatized by the incident, I continued to go barefoot — it was Southern California, after all.

Well, just a couple of weeks later, while visiting my father in a nearby city and after being there a just a few days, I again stepped on a needle — in the other foot. I didn’t know it at the time and would later learn that he couldn’t handle and/or was very dramatic about anything having to do with pain or blood or crying. I was taken to the hospital to, again, have a needle surgically removed from my foot. Interestingly, what I really recall from that was that the needle insertion for the anesthetic was more painful than stepping on and breaking that needle in my foot. And, the ride home included ice cream and the next day for a preplanned trip to Disneyland, I had to ride in a wheelchair and be carried onto each of the rides.

So the point is that that needle had been right there beside our bed for some time… a week? two weeks? longer? And the Lord had protected me from what has been a lifetime concern. I took time to acknowledge that yesterday when it happened and have many times since… just thanking the Lord for His watchcare over me, for His mercy and kindness and for saving me from and protecting me from things I’ll never know. And today I’ve continued to think on different things that He’s spared me from, different “near misses” from accidents, to missteps, to consequences for foolish actions and on and on.

Last night as I went upstairs to the different beds to say goodnight to the children (I know… they’re mostly all grown now, but since they’re still home I try to be there to tell them goodnight). As I walked around the girl’s bedroom where they were all ready for sleep, I said to them how grateful to God I am for giving them such a safe and peaceful room, such a pleasant place to rest — that He has been guarding and guiding them.

And as I returned to our room, the thought washed over me that God has done this for all of us. Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, wherever we go… He’s already there – already watching over us. He’s already gone before us and whatever happens has first sifted through His capable Hands and has already been part of His providential plan for us.

Maybe you can think of different times where you know that God clearly intervened on your behalf and spared you or provided for you providentially such that you know that you know that only He could have done that… that He alone is the Lord.

Whose Plans?

teacuppamela It’s sure a beautiful Springtime day here in the Snohomish Valley — it’s the kind of day that puts thoughts of rains and flooding to a very distant memory — though such a great possibility only a few short months ago. It’s funny how quickly a current reality can totally erase or totally eclipse another, isn’t it?

As I walked around outside for the first time in a week, I stopped at each of the different garden beds and then on out to the vegetable garden where my initial delight was slightly dimmed by the vision of all the weeds… all that needs to be done. And you know what song came to mind? The House at Pooh Corner song: “… So help me if you can, I’ve got to get – Back to the house at Pooh Corner by one – You’d be surprised, there’s so much to be done – Count all the bees in the hive – Chase all the clouds from the sky – Back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh…”

And then it stuck me that there’s nothing more to be done than what’s been needed in years past. Same thing. From the beginning, year after year, it’s the same thing: we pull the weeds, we till the ground, we plant the seeds and water them well. Yet, each year I say the very same thing… sort of the inane, “you’d be surprised there’s so much to be done…” statement. And then I smiled at the thought of counting all the bees in the hive. But life’s like that — the surprising things that need to be done are generally more than we can do — like counting the bees in the hive. And yet, has God truly given us more than we can do? I think we’re the ones who lay on ourselves more than we can do and what God gives us to do is not more than we can do — because if we would remember: it is God that works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. In that same passage, the following verses admonish us to: “…do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” — Philippians 2.14-15

So what does the simple storybook song have to teach me in this? The things I fret over getting done: I cannot possibly get done. But what God gives me to do, I will seek to do without murmuring or complaining — for what He calls me to do: He will equip me to do. Ergo, if He hasn’t called me to do it, He hasn’t expected me to do it and, at this moment, hasn’t equipped me to do it and those frets and expectations came not from Him but from somewhere else! So then, I have to ask, if I’m fretting, murmuring or disputing over things I’m doing: am I doing what I’ supposed to be doing? Or, perhaps, am I doing things out of selfishness? fear? pride? envy? guilt?

Now, there are times when we do things or must do things that we feel we cannot possibly do but we know we’re to do them — I can think of many examples of this, and you probably can, too. These are steps we take in faith — but inherent in this is the fact that we lean on the everlasting Arms and trust in Him for His provision. These are the: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” times. You see? If we’re doing we’ve been called to do, even if we feel as though we cannot do them, He’s already there, and by faith, we are IN Christ by the faith OF Christ and HE has said HE work in us to will and do to of His good pleasure. That’s great and blessed assurance.

So when I see all that needs to be done, when I think of the many other things that also need doing, I have a couple of options. I can (and very easily so!) become overwhelmed at all there is to be done –OR– I can observe all these things, and acknowledge they are out there and evaluate them for what they are. And then, the Lord being my helper (calling to mind again, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” –philippians 4.13), I will do that which He guides me to do and leave off doing those things which are motivated by those other sources that are not of Him. This is hard sometimes because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is so weak. We’re so often more controlled by what others think than what God thinks — but, truly, you and I must consider our motivation when we list out all that we (think) we must do.

It’s been brought to mind so many times for me over the last week as I’ve not been well and have spent so much time in bed… all my fretting over what I shouldda, couldda, wouldda been doing had I not been laid low all these days… all my fretting didn’t get those things done and didn’t get me out of that bed any sooner. I realized as I was reading in the Book of John several days ago that the Lord had something for me there (and for such a time as this)… something for me to let sink down in my ears, to really take in: Jesus repeated, on many occasions, that He did only the will of the Father. And so must I: for the express purpose of being Christlike: doing that which the Father directs–doing the will of God. As I purpose to concentrate on health, I must also concentrate on motivations — the what and why of all my doings. I hope you’ll be encouraged as I am for the will and work of the Lord in each of our lives… and that you’ll join me in waiting on His plan and purposes in His time. So let your light shine…