The Welcome Home Blog entries will resume tomorrow… vacationing is such(!) hard work! ;o)
Category: Potpourri
Re-imaging God
You may be saying… wha…? I know. Incredible. I almost hesitate to write about this bcz of the blasphemous nature of the topic, but I share this, in part, to urge awareness… to urge believers to pray and to urge believers to “wake up” and see the turns of events in the world around us.
The more time goes by we’re seeing incredible leaps and departures from the Truth. As if the ‘seeker felt-needs-meet-my-wants’ trend wasn’t extreme enough, and as if the contemplative, mysticism wasn’t enough of a departure, now we have yet another perversion of Truth: the heretical, “re-imaging” of God – “the re-imaging of God by [this, from the “herchurch” website] by claiming her [sic] feminine persona in thealogy [sick sic], liturgy, church structure, art, language, practices, leadership, and acts of justice. Challenging the church’s restricted language of the past, we pay special attention to images and metaphors that attempt to embrace divine fullness and that offer a witness of holy nurture and inclusive justice, both to the church and to the world.”
I see a bit of where the departure might have begun (well… in addition to that incident in the garden) – at least, in part, it may have begun with the stretching of the meaning of one of the names of God: El Shaddai. El Shaddai means God Almighty – God All Sufficient. Further, Shad means breastinHebrew; thus, the stretch that God is female – the sustainer, the life-giver as women are and then the broad (pun unintended) assumption that God is actually female — you may sometimes hear: mother God. Or, in a stretch Father-Mother God. The “re-imaging” of God is not new… but it is grievous nonetheless.
In the make-me-feel-good-tell-me-what-I-want-to-hear “church” today, it’s no wonder the “re-imaging” can be taking place. And it may be embraced in surprising places… for, consider that even hairy potter books (misspelling intentional) are tolerated – even lauded by *christians* around the world. Each has a place in the hall of shame. It’s a pathetic situation when “theologians” teachers – preachers – miss the dark side or the forbidden in Scripture: dabbling in occultic practices. Recommending those books is akin to recommending yoga or any other eastern meditation / spiritual formation and /or the new favourite : contemplative or contemplative spirituality.
The re-imaging of God is happening everywhere… consider that pastors are attempting to see how the church can fit into the homosexual “lifestyle.” Consider that pastors are grappling with attempting to make smooth paths for such “alternative” lifestyles. Can you, for even a moment, consider or imagine a pastor attempting to make way or provision for pedophiles or practicing thieves, murderers, liars, adulterers… on and on. See? See the shift in thinking… we’re slowly being trained, ingrained, and indoctrinated to believe the dialectic… that it’s simply a gentle lifestyle choice, not a sin – not an abomination – to be homosexual live a life of a sodomite. See… pedophilia grosses us out, makes us angry, boils our core. But shouldn’t other abominations? Shouldn’t we take a stand against that which stands against God’s natural plan, purpose and design? I take a stand against what violates God’s design. That’s why I say what I say and that’s why all these “lifestyles” that are contrary to God’s design are so grievous. Are the *people* themselves to be condemned? No—the people themselves need salvation (just like me) to know the LORD (as I do) and to serve Him (as I also need/desire/want to/would/should serve Him). The church… following after all the new seductive conversations, drunk on it’s own sensual revelations needs to turn to the God of the Bible, not the godS of this world — and not the godS of other “religions” and not a re-imaged god… but God – the Creator of all things, the Sustainer of all things, our Provider, our LORD and Saviour: God.
Don’t think the slide into the abyss is all that big a deal? Don’t think that all the repackaging of distorted truths is just a bunch of hype? Consider the enormity of the impact these lies are having on “the church” today. I write about this from time to time… not so much to sound an alarm but to say… the alarm is already blaring but the ‘church’ seems so mesmerized and enthralled with itself and is swaying to the beat of repetitive sensual tunes and seems deaf to the alarm and blind to the warning signs.
Curried Chicken Wraps
(courtesy of Ina Garten and The Food Network)
CURRIED CHICKEN WRAPS
3 split (1 1/2 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups good mayonnaise
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chutney (recommended: Major Gray’s)
3 tablespoons curry powder
1 cup medium-diced celery (2 large stalks)
1/4 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts (2 scallions)
1/4 cup raisins
1 cup whole roasted, salted cashews, chopped
6 tortillas
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and shred the chicken in pieces. (Time saving tip…you can also just pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and use that instead!)
For the dressing, combine the mayonnaise, wine, chutney, curry powder, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process until smooth. Combine the chicken with enough dressing to moisten well. Add the celery, scallions, and raisins, and mix well.
Refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Add the cashews to the chicken. Fill the center of each tortilla with the chicken mixture. Fold the 2 sides of the tortilla over the filling so that the sides overlap. Roll the tortilla from bottom to top, and cut in half diagonally.
“…that women would adorn themselves…”
…in modest apparel.”
I’ve been mulling this over (and over) and over. This morning I was browsing Facebook then the Drudge Report and the Seattle Times. And you know… there’s a common thread (pun unintentional — but I think there’s something to it) and a common appearance. It’s not just the blurring the lines between decency and indecency or masculinity and femininity (certainly not in the SeattleTimes). But it’s more than that — I’m not sure it’s driven by culture today or culture of thirty years ago or what. I’m not even touching on the mutilation by piercings and tattoos, by the way. But there’s a blurring of God’s creation. There’s a distortion of God’s creation. A mutilation of God’s creation. I see immodesty as a bit of all three — and that’s immodesty among men as well as among women. Immodesty infers that there is nothing sacred — nothing warranting covering and nothing warranting privacy and nothing warranting reverence. O— women need to get this matter right. I don’t mean that there’s a specific clothing style or code or uniform… but there is need to women to guard their bodies — guard the treasure of their body and not flaunt it. In addition to that, there’s such a need for women to guard womanhood — girlhood — femininity! What a blessing God created us male and female — we are different one from another. What a great gift this is. Immodesty destroys purity and unisex or gender-nonspecific clothing destroys God’s distinctive design.
What that says to me, therefore, is that immodesty is carelessness or disregard of God’s design and eternal purpose. Immodesty is arrogant. Immodesty is rude… it seeks its own way, it is easily provoked, it behaves unseemly. Immodesty isn’t kind, it puffs up, it exalts self and doesn’t seek the good of others – therefore, immodesty is not charitable… or is not loving. I used those analogies bcz in the end, it’s not love for the brethren if we’re immodest as believers. If, as believers, we dress immodestly, we’re sending not only mixed signals to the brethren, but mixed signals to the watching world as well. We’re saying outward appearance doesn’t matter… God’s special design and order is not all that important and outward appearance isn’t a “spiritual” matter. But I’d say that it is… the outward is simply revealing the inward.
So what is modesty? Modesty is moderation, decency — modesty is propriety, it’s not forward or arrogant. Modesty “… is synonymous with chastity, or purity of manners. In this sense, modesty results from purity of mind, or from the fear of disgrace and ignominy fortified by education and principle. unaffected modesty is the sweetest charm of the female excellence, the richest gem in the diadem of their honour.” [this definition, in part, from Noah Webster 1828]
Do we see very much fear (as in the sense of propriety and honour in dress and demeanor) in dress and behaviour today? No… not much fear at all. In fact, the “No Fear” slogan has sort of pervaded our culture, thought and behaviour and is totally contrary to God’s design. Immodesty is contrary to God’s design. “Gender-unspecific” is totally contrary to God’s design and yet is common — normal — but normal doesn’t necessarily mean right or appropriate.
there ought to be a law… on indecent exposure
And now there is. And I’d hazard to guess that there are “indecent exposure” laws on the books in many states already… maybe many laws and on the books for many, many years.
So, now in Mansfield, Louisiana there’s a brand new law against indecent exposure… a law against sagging. Now, you know, I’m thinking that there’s going to be a bunch of hooey about the invasion of privacy or personal expression… you know freedom of dress as a form of speech. Apparently, there’ll be a pretty stiff fine for, well… “Anyone caught wearing sagging pants who exposes his or her underwear will be subject to a fine of up to $150 plus court costs, or face up to 15 days in jail.”
So, there you have it. An arbitrary law… that’s also ambiguous. Perhaps this targets men, or rather, younger males. So anyone who exposes his or her underwear will be fined. His or her… underwear. Now, isn’t that interesting —with men and women increasingly revealing more and more of their undergarments, this’ll be a pretty tough law to enforce. Well, that, or the city will rake in the revenue from violators who defy the law. And given what’s being worn every day, they’re going to need reams of paper for writing out citations. Now, how do you suppose they’ll handle women’s clothing? How about swimsuits? How about the inside out fashion trend? You know… women’s lingerie on the outside. O, c’mon, you know what I mean. Lace clothes hanging out of low tops and pulled tight over the low pants. And the trend here in the pacnorthwest and elsewhere is to wear the low pants so that the tag from a type of undergarment purchased from a Secret store is hanging out of the back of the low pants. I see it so often that I wonder… do the fathers of these girls not tell them what all that says? Do the mothers turn a blind eye to the clothing they wear?
Why is it that indecent exposure is so common and so acceptable. Will the law in Mansfield apply to, say, commonly worn beach attire? Is a bikini not simply colourful underwear? And will underwear include all forms? It really could get out of hand… but, I suppose not more out of hand than the current trends that seem to be commonly accepted.
Ironically, I was just corresponding with a woman this evening about this very topic: modest clothing. It was in relation to the sale of what was termed “modest clothing,” and I was commenting that many of the images I had previewed were, in fact, not “modest” at all. They were designed to cover much of the body (and that was remarkable), but they were still skintight and very provocative. So… modesty isn’t simply a matter of not showing the undergarment or of covering the skin, but it’s something more: it is the wearing of apparel to cover and to not be suggestive or enticing about what’s underneath and the manner in which the clothing is worn has a great deal to do with whether or not a woman is modestly dressed. Now, I’ve spoken and written on this topic many times over the years and have sought to encourage women to take a good look at what they are or aren’t wearing — and why. I think I’ll share a bit more tomorrow on modesty and, this latest topic, indecent exposure.
What if today was your last day…
Your last day to live on this earth. Your last day to see a sunset. Your last day to run upstairs with a basket of laundry. Your last day to shave your legs. Your last day to kiss your husband. Your last day to eat oatmeal. Your last day to pull weeds. Your last day to tuck children in bed and kiss them goodnight. Your last day to wash the clothes, turn socks, iron shirts, fold towels. Your last day to change a diaper, nurse a baby, clean a highchair tray. Your last day to pay a bill, greet a neighbour, pick a flower. Your last day to make your bed, dust a table, scour a sink. Your last day to pump gas, wait at a stop light, drive on the freeway. Your last day to use a keyboard, write a letter, lick a stamp.
What if today was your last day?
would you have been glad? Would others have seen gladness in you—that indescribable joy? No, I don’t mean glad it was your last day or joyful that’s superficial like some happiness… I mean glad… a glad heart, a glad countenance, a glad smile… glad to be alive and glad to be yielded to the LORD — glad to be in the capable Hand of the Saviour and submitting to He leading. Or would you have murmured… would you be remembered as a murmuring complainer… a doubter… an angry mom?
What if every day, after this day, you could do none of the above… what if all you could do is swallow and blink, whisper and think. How would you do the dailies today? How would your day be spent? What would be remembered? The work you did? No… what would be remembered was how you did it/them… how you looked, seemed, sounded and how you responded the the LORD’s call on your life.
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Romans 13.11-14
Jesus Stood Still
I’ve been mulling over this thought all day: Jesus stood still. And so, I’ve been considering that for me, for you — for anyone who calls on Him in faith: Jesus stands still. Though He was on the Jericho Road… knowing full well that He was about to be delivered into the hands of the chief Priests and Scribes… and there along the way was blind Bartimaeus. Now, it’s not so much that he was there, or that Jesus knew he was there or even that He passed by him. It’s remarkable that when He passed by, He stopped.
Bartimaeus was told to come to Jesus… and he did so. He obeyed before he received the blessing of sight. I think that’s remarkable. I believe he would have followed Jesus even if he had not been healed. Instead, Jesus did heal him after asking Bartimaeus what he wanted. Bartimaeus wanted sight. And Jesus granted it and sent him on his way. But his way became the way of Jesus, for the Word says that Bartimaeus immediately received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Jesus affirmed to him that his faith had made him whole.
Many are blind and in need of the healing touch of the LORD… many will never see a daisy or a full moon or into the eyes of a newborn or face of a bride or the sky at sunset… but even they will see Jesus. But there are none so blind as those who will not see.
There is never a time when Jesus ignores the prayer of faith. Faith is the gift of God… for we all, like Bartimaeus, are born blind – figuratively or literally or both. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us are as pitiful as beggers and unless or until Jesus stands still and stoops to hear us, we remain in that destitute state: beggers. Beggers without hope… as Ephesians 2.12 says: “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:” No hope and without God. But God! And this is the sweetest truth: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5.8)
Jesus stands still to hear your cries. He stands still to make intercession for you. He stands still to hear your faithful prayers. O, the enemy will attempt to convince you otherwise. O, the enemy or naysayers will attempt to thwart your faith, your hope, your love for the LORD. But God… but the LORD still hears and still answers… still stands still for you. Do you see that? The enemy and naysayer you know might shame you into thinking you aren’t heard or that you aren’t worth it or that you have failed too many times………. Ooooo, that’s the biggy: too many failings… too many mistakes… too much sin… too much time since your last Bible reading or too much time since your last act of faithfulness or act of kindness. Ah—but that’s not God — and you know it. You know when you call on Him… in faith… He hears you. There’s not a ticking time-clock and your time’s about to expire… no. Today if you will hear His voice. (Hebrews 3). Today.
Taste and see. Prove Him. You will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever find Him unfaithful. Never. He stood still for me. He will stand still for you.
today’s slices
I’m taking a break from watching videos… yep, that’s me, sitting around watching videos in the middle of the day. Yep… I even made popcorn and a cup of tea. I was falling asleep and decided I needed to engage in some meaningful conversation. So… I guess others will decide if this’ll be meaningful or not. O, the video? It’s a Micro$oft program training video. Yes… I need to get going on our store… more aprons came today — thus the impetus for buckling down and watching the training video.
I’m thinking, wow, I should’ve had a video for Frontpage when I first began to use that program years ago. Whew… everything’s got a learning curve. I guess in a few years people like me will be able to sit at the computer and simply dictate info to the machine………. here’s what I want, here’s how I want it to look and here’s what I want to say and voilà: a functioning website! Maybe that’s just what will happen.
I know, I know… that’s what web designers do every day. They’re probably a lot like tax guys. Or Creative Memories consultants. They get a bunch of stuff in a shoe box… hear all the reasons why a person didn’t/can’t/won’t get the job done on their own and then sort through it all and attempt to make sense of it and come up with a nice presentation… uh… to the IRS or to the family… which ever comes first.
So, I’m wading through the program and am attempting to just make sense of it enough to put together the pages necessary to launch The Welcome Home Store. O… and all the while I am thinking of some pretty good advice a friend gave… Seeing’s how I was attempting to get everything all lined up neatly in a row… he suggested that I just launch out with whatever I had… one product or whatever and then see what happens. A lot of wisdom in that guy’s mind, I tell ya. And so… seeing that my husband isn’t wasting days and days doing his work… neither should I with mine. So… I’ll get to figuring out how to utilize the program… and hopefully I’ve properly perceived that the merchandise is good… as did my P31 sister, I need to get a shopping cart implemented and see about selling some girdles to the merchants Good Things.
But first… I want to share another bit with you… O, and about the falling asleep at the video? Truly… it was just me… the presenter is doing a great job… very informative, very thorough and well spoken. She’s just got such a soothing voice… I wasn’t bored… I was jut lulled to sleep. It’s just what happens when I’m read to for any length of time… or when I read the children’s stories to them in the late afternoon. ;o)
One of Timothy’s papers…
Why do statistics tell us that 80% of Americans are “born-again” Christians and yet America is one of the most openly immoral and vile countries? Christians live practically no different than the world! We go to the same corrupt movies, listen to the same fleshly music. Girls dress like prostitutes and guys dress like punks, both showing no respect for themselves and those around them. From a young age they are engaged in dating and other promiscuous activities. The divorce rate of the “church” and the world is practically the same. Christian teens have as much honor and obedience to their parents as their unsaved friends. We have a fraction of the zeal JW’s do, it’s painful and embarrassing for most to share their faith; besides, we are to busy arguing when the rapture will take place. It is not a problem for a reprobate to go to church, in fact churches go out of their way to make them as comfortable as possible! With sermons bringing no conviction, one could get “saved” and still continue on in the same lifestyle as before and yet this is no cause for alarm. We use bible translations that are worse than even the New World Translation. No one has any respect for the Word of God anymore!
The Church today is at best luke-warm and at worse cold and dead asleep.
As Christians we are supposed to be a counterculture and yet we blend right in!
Our country is rapidly decaying and about to fall, no one would deny this. We kill our newborn babies by the millions and ship our parents off to nursing homes–they both are just too inconvenient! The country is obviously divided on most everything. The world–and even the church–almost universally tolerates blatant immorality of every abominable sort, an obvious trademark of a nation about to collapse. The statistics on the revenue of the porn industry is deplorable.
The family has/is being destroyed. The average American family has two kids at most while Islamic families have an average of 7 and immigrants from Latin America who are truly Catholic have an average of 8 to 9! It doesn’t take very much brains to figure out what is going to happen!
Psalm clearly states: “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” (127:3-5.) Our liberal friends would have us to believe that we need to stop having children! If they don’t want a reward and would prefer to go into battle without arrows in their quiver they can go ahead!
In short, when the world looks at the church it sees itself! The Christians of the NT and later years shook the world! They died for their faith and took the Lord seriously. As Paul Washer said, “The American idea of a radical Christian is one who wears a religious t-shirt or has a bumper sticker on their car.”
What is going to stop the slide of this country and turn it around?! Obviously Liberal politics is quickening its demise. Conservative politics aren’t fairing any better! They thought since Mr. Bush was a Christian he would turn us around and yet he is handing the country over to Mexico and attempting to divide Israel. No, it’s not going to be in the arena of politics. If you want to fight a shark you don’t do it in the water!
This country and the world needs Jesus. The “church” needs Jesus! We need the gospel to be preached. We need Christians who are light and salt! We must take the basket off of our lamps. We must be in the word and in prayer daily. We must be walking in the power and after the Spirit. There must be revival or else there will be persecution–and the Lord knows we have enough mediocre and flat out hypocritical Christians that perhaps persecution is the only option.
It is not only a dark hour for America but for the whole world.
Brothers and sisters, the whole world is sinking wholesale into hell because there is no light. We must live up to our name, we are to be witnesses! We are preachers of peace and ministers of reconciliation!
What are you doing for the Lord? There is a war going on, get in it!”
Timothy – April ’07
chicken pox update
Everyday I look at our children… the ones who have the chicken pox and the two who haven’t yet contracted them. It’s gotten to the point that Andrew walks in and I smile at him and he sort of instinctively reads the smile as: okay, lift your chin, show me your neck; extend your arms, show me some spots… lift up your shirt, show me your tummy. Nothing. Yet.
Here’s what dolly thought of her chicken pox. She drew this picture of herself… yes, there were poxes on poxes ~wink~ all over. The one on the neck was particularly bothersome to her.
