promises

I am reading the Psalms in the mornings again, the refreshing songs and poems that stir my heart and speak just as much today as they did when I was a child. My childhood and adolescent mornings were spent drowsily reading portions of the Psalms and Proverbs for twenty years. Under the watchful eye of our parents, neither of which had been parented well, we grew up with daily family worship: Scripture reading and prayer. 

Floods of memories of time spent investing in the eternal Kingdom of my heart engulf my mind as I read the Words again and again. Thank You, Abba Father, for them and for the parents who gave us all this priceless gift!

"Those who love Your law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble. I hope for Your salvation, O LORD, And do Your commandments. My soul keeps Your testimonies, And I love them exceedingly. I keep Your precepts and Your testimonies, For all my ways are before You." (Psalms 119:165-168 NASB)

devotion

"Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them." -Hebrews 13:9 (ESV)

My sister Tricia shared this verse with me this week. I had her send it to me because I wanted to study it in context and explore what the Lord might want to say to me. I came to several conclusions.

1) I do not want to be devoted to foods.
I do not want to be devoted to anything, saving Christ. Not THM for me. Not paleo for Trish. Nothing but Him. Jesus as Lord.  Good, fresh, healthy, chemical-free, organic food is very important and is essential to living an active life. It is. But my passion and devotion belong to Jesus.

2) I want my heart to be strengthened by God's grace.
Which is sufficient. I have to trust that, not just believe it. Sufficient...enough...words that grow in meaning and depth the longer I live. My strength does not come from human sources, but from my Creator.

3) I do not want to be led astray by "diverse and strange teachings."
In all my learning and studying and exploring remedies for Tricia's diseases, I will never compromise my faith in Almighty God to save, deliver, and heal. I will not dabble in the reflexology, or any other heathen or humanistic practice that is present in essential oil instruction or any other treatment that I explore.  Thankfully, my local group and upline in YLEO is not into all that!

4) I am thankful.
I an grateful for the THM lifestyle, paleo eating plan, essential oil education, and all other tools for living a healthy, courageous life, but my lifeline and source is Jesus Christ in whom and by whom all things exist. My life depends on Him, my Sustainer, not on what I eat.

So I don't agree with something like this:

september

Before September is properly passed, I want to record my favorite month of the year here. This September found my dependence on the Lord depended. In general, I do not become overwhelmed easily. But the stressors of this month, along with the passing of another birthday, found my spirit sagging close to depression. Thankfully, the Lord heard my cries for help and has delivered me. I echo St. Augustine's thoughts:

"Sometimes we do not merit seeing God in a difficult occasion, because we have not cultivated grace in our inner man. We have not sought God in order to grow in grace. That is to say, we do not merit the honor of being set by God in difficult circumstances- situations in which He wants to be made known- because we have not grown in our ability to see Him in our inner man." -St. Augustine, in On Seeing God

In my uni studies, I have studied recently about "Sabbatical living," a concept largely lost on Western culture, but not obscure to me. Since I was a child, we have observed a weekly rest day, free from the demands of life and the busyness of work. As of late, I have determined that I need to take it more seriously, especially since I have been relegating household chores and housework to this day. I reason that I have no other day to get it accomplished, but I have been robbing myself of resting and replenishing. Hense my stress levels pushing me to depression.

Several hours of meditation and memorizing Scripture (I am curently pegging away at Psalm 91), prayer, and reading meaningful books do wonders to my spirit and soul.

I do not realize that when I neglect it, my spirit starts to wither, and I try to re-coup its loss by being busier than I need to be. My heavier burdens are family duties, spiritual burden of family members who purposely live in opposition to the Lord, household needs that are not met adequately, repairs and remodels that additional money and hard-working men are needed for, future unknowns, the pressure of uni classes added to my already high-octane life...these are my issues.

I have missed a wedding this month. I found out that the groom, who I know, has been sinning against God and his wife, who I do not know. It pains me to see him sully her life with his, so I could not, in clear conscience before God, witness those vows.

I have celebrated new life at a baby shower for a former student and secretary (Sarah), who looks forward to welcoming a precious baby girl (Sophia) into her family. I wanted to get her something really nice, something to treasure and keep, so I finally settled on the Spring Portrait Huggable Huggums Madame Alexander baby doll at Let's Play.

I have spent some time in my garden, which has needed some TLC for some time now. Weeding is the name of the game. yesterday, I spent several hours weeding and have a HUGE 3-foot pile to show for it. Now to inaugurate my burn barrel to dispose of them. I am sporting under a dozen ant bites on my hands and arms to show for my labors. I have spent too much $ on ant-killer this year; I think they move from place to place in the yard, instead of dying like they are supposed to!

I purchased three bargain Christian Regency era novels at Lifeway on the day that Mama bought me a large print New Living Translation Life Application Study Bible for my birthday. What a Bible! So far, Tricia and Mom have been enjoying the books (Linore Rose Burkard's The Country House Courtship, and . ;-)

My birthday was spent in Foley with a day of shopping. At first, on our drive out, I thought it was going to be a disaster (Mom was in a mood), but it ironed out (I prayed very hard!), and I had an enjoyable day overall. Fresh Produce had just received a new shipment of dresses and shirts (it's been a long while since they have had anything that fit me). I was blessed with a nice 20% discount, so I bought the girls two sweet blue sundresses. I enjoyed Kitchen Connection as well, getting myself some needed kitchen things (and some foofoo items as well)! Sarah met up with us for a late lunch at Lambert's (enjoy those "throwed rolls"). Delicious food! I spent the next hour browsing in Old Time Pottery. I didn't find much to buy (I was looking for a mercury glass vase or container to add to my dresser collection), but I did get the baking pan that I needed. And then we headed home.

Tricia went out of her way to make my birthday weekend special, and I appreciate and love her for it (and also for being an all-around awesome best friend/sister)! We had a delicious coffee and breakfast biscuit the next morning and spent the day at home and visiting Cori and precious nieces that I love so dearly! That night was the "family birthday dinner" at Carrabbas. Brother paid for my dinner, but spent the evening baiting Mom. It was not enjoyable at all, and in the end I wish I hadn't planned it. We ended the night picking up Krispy Kreme donuts to enjoy over the weekend. Yum!

I am loving my Keurig!!! It was my birthday gift to myself (we don't exchange gifts as a family anymore), and I have been especially enjoying the macadamia flavored coffee. There are so many flavors to explore; I have already found some that I don't like, but more that I do. :-)

Last weekend, I finally was able to store the last of the Christmas storage bins away, as well as clean up and de-clutter the house (living/dining rooms, laundry room). Today I hope to vacuum the main living area, tackle the girls' playroom, and clean out the fridge. In addition to resting, of course! ;-)

heaven and hell. yeah.

So in my astronomy class, the prof is incessantly walking about the "molten iron & nickel planet core" theory. It has made me want to know more about the realities of heaven and hell. And then the advent of Rob Bell's heretical book, suggesting annihilationism and the belief that hell’s fire is not eternal or real. I know only those who KNOW God's Word to be the Rock of our faith will stand against this "Christo-Platonism."

Ever since Daddy passed into eternity, I have been slowly reading Randy Alcorn's book Heaven. It's a l-o-n-g read, chock full of biblical references and commentaries on heaven with info about what it will be like, at least according to our understanding of other-world physicalities and more dimensions than we can experience with our five senses.

Jesus said in John 14:2 that He "goes to prepare a place for you."  This place is topos in the Greek, indicating that Heaven is an actual place. Matt. 25:46 Jesus says, "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." If one is a physical place, then the other is also.

 So I went online tonight and started looking up verses about hell. WOW. I didn't know that there are no fewer than 49 references to hell as being an actual geographic place, specifically in the center of the earth. Here are a few:

1. Ez. 26:20 – lower parts of the earth

2. Num. 16:32-33 – earth opened her mouth down to sheol.

3. Is. 14:9-10 – hell from beneath

4. Amos 9:2 – though thou dig into hell

5. Is. 5:14 – hell, they shall descend into it

6. Ez. 31:14 – lower parts of the earth, with those who descend

7. Ps. 63:9 – lower parts of the earth

8. Matt. 12:40 – so shall the Son of man be 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth

9. Eph. 4:9; Matt. 12:40- Jesus Himself descended to the lower parts of the earth, and spent 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth.

10. Luke 16:22-23 – Abraham's bosom and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

11. Rev. 5:13, Phil 2:10- mentions everyone in Heaven, and on the earth and those under the earth

12. Rev. 9:2-  demons come up from the bottomless pit during the tribulation period and smoke comes up with them and darkens the sky, real smoke from a real fire down in the earth

13. Ez. 31:16- "Down to hell, with them that descend into the pit" in the nether(lower depths below) parts of the earth.

And then several verses that I will have to study some more: Rev. 20:13-14 & Matt. 25:30

After Judgment Day, Death and Hades will be cast into the lake of fire into outer darkness.

The Lake of Fire is the final hell, right? So is there a "pre-hell" until after the White Throne Judgment? 

Thankfulness- Scriptures for 2010

I have immersed myself in the Word this year, as it has been a difficult year for our family in general. The Psalms have ministered to me this year once again as they have many times over the years.

I had the distinct privilege to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls as they were touring the world several years ago. The broken and brittle Psalms papyri were precious to behold.  I especially loved the story about the scribes who would destroy their pens and bathe after copying each reference to Jehovah's name, out of reverence for His Holiness. And seeing that His name was copied in a different color ink from the rest of the scripting was just amazing!

My favs..
God declares that He is faithful to His promises (Psalm 143).
He charts my life path, and tells me when to stop and rest (Psalm 139).
Reminding me that those who sow in tears will reap joy (Psalm 126).
The Lord preserves my life (and my health!), keeps His eye upon me as I come and go, and guards me continually (Psalm 121).
Reminding me that those who love God's law will have great peace and will not stumble (Psalm 119).
That when I do fall under the burden of life, that He will lift me up (Psalm 145).
And that "He fulfills the desires of those who reverence and trust Him" (Psalm 146).