We have started back to homeschooling and I've begun our 2nd half of the year with a new attitude, new vision, new (or maybe I should say RE-newed) purpose. I am sooooo grateful to our Gracious God for the blessing of REST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We took from the last week in Nov to the 2nd week in Jan. off for vacation/break....and ooohhhhh was it needed and appreciated!!! There is something to be said about taking REGULAR intervals of rest and actually in my own personal studies I've come across God's principle of REST. He knew we would need rest and so He even instituted and incorporated rest into His commandments..."Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy"

Ex. 20:8-11

8Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it

In fact Moses instructed the Israelites to observe the sabbath even before God wrote it on the tablets of the 10 commandments and as we all know God established His cycle of rest in the beginning when He rested on the seventh day in Genesis. Not only did He rest and establish rest but the Word says He made it HOLY!! Our seventh day of rest is HOLY..God considers it HOLY!! How awesome is that! I still don't fully understand the import of it's holiness but if God says it is HOLY unto Him then I shall begin to look at it as HOLY and treat it as HOLY...just like the tithe is HOLY unto Him. That is one thing that I've been taught not to mess with because the tithe is not ours, it is the Lord's and it is HOLY unto Him. Therefore, I render it unto Him with respect and sobriety b/c it is HOLY....just like taking my rest when God says to take a rest.

God is just soooooo good...His very name means good(the scripture says God is good----a little bit of mathematics here, if a=b then b=a....if God is good then the definition of the word good is God and vice versa). Anyway, God has given us daily rest periods(the time where we sleep), the then weekly rests(after we've worked for 6 days we are commanded to rest on the seventh...and as far as homeschooling I would encourage every homeschooling mom to schedule regular intervals of rest(and even one prolonged period of rest) in their homeschool schedules b/c it is soooo beneficial. I've come to see the answer to burnout, any kind of burnout is rest...but isn't that what God told us to do in the beginning? I wonder why we've not seen it as important and as HOLY as God sees it? Of course it was not stressed in church about how important it is to rest...the 7th day was always spent in church and so was Wednesday night at bible study and so was Friday night prayer and then we go to work and take care of our families and try to spend time and have real relationships the remainder of the week and we are in "rest-deficits"....we don't have anything to give b/c we violate God's principle of rest and dont' take the time to rest and be renewed.
The following is for your consideration:
Isaiah 58:13-14

13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

This scripture says to me that God has promised a blessing in keeping what God has established as HOLY!

The book by Dr. Richard Heidler called The Messianic Church Arising has been such a blessing to me in pointing this principle out.

Something else that has been brewing in my heart is to study the Biblical feasts and not just study but to implement in our lives and homeschool. That is the reason I bought the book by Dr. Heidler. It has turned out to be a wonderful rsource for me (along with Chuck Pierce's book called Reordering Your Day. This one talks about establishing the prayer watches in your life.) So I'm in prayer about what principles to bring out about each feast as we observe them. I'll share what we do when we do it. My heart has also been pricked into acquiring more understanding of the Hebraic view of life, God, education, family, etc. Although man has put 'labels' on all these topics that I've mentioned I don't see it as becoming Jewish or Hebrew but this quest I'm on is about attaining to the knowledge of The One Who Loved me and Gave His Life for Me...about knowing the Eternal, Ageless One Who Created me and Gave me Life and continues to sustain and commune with me...the One who beckons to me in the night seasons when all is quiet and everyone is sleep...beckoning me to come sit in His Presence JUST because He loves me and wants to spend time with me...the One who speaks Words of comfort to my storm-tossed and weary soul...a soul that is weary from worrying about our homeschool not being up-to-par, storm-tossed with the emotions and physical fatigue of taking care of sick children and rushing my 7yog to the hospital with 103 fever b/c it would go no lower on a Sunday and then my 2 yo coming down with a fever of 102, a soul that allowed itself to be burdened down with the care of finances that are not there in abundance the way I've prayed for them to be for so long and yet we still wait, etc, on and on...yet and still I praise Him. It is in these night seasons, at 3am, 4 am sometimes 12 midnight as I respond to His call that He frees me from these cares and concerns and He sets me free to rejoice in Him

I willfully issue forth a praise and I determine to live a life of love and obedience that I pray is a pleasing fragrance unto the Lord even thru the pressure of trial, testing, and warfare.

He continues to show Himself faithful in my life and on my behalf and I shall continue to worship Him for His goodness and to kiss His nail-scarred Hands and Feet...those precious Hands and Feet, I lay tender kisses of my love, of my praise....of my very life.

Lord I praise You this morning for Your great love which You have for me. I praise You and thank You for demonstrating that love for me the day Jesus came to earth. I praise You that each and every day I wake up You are there...You are there to greet me with Your loving smile as I see night give way to day...You are there with Your loving touch as I sleepily realize You've given me another day to learn of You and to rejoice in all You've made and all You've done...You are there with a new mercy for a new day that has never been before...You are there delighting in 'the habitable part of the earth'...delighting in me as I allow You to order my steps...You are there and I see Your joy and Your love for shine so clear even thru the raindrops and definitely thru the sunshine. I thank You for this day and I thank You for Your precious, precious Word...The Word of Life. Thank You for teaching me that I may teach Your wonderful precepts and principles and truths. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefor I hate eery false way. Thank You for leading me and guiding me in discovering Your wonderful Will in Your wonderful Word...

I'm Yours forever,

dee

While we were at the retreat(see previous post) we went to Sunday morning service.  My 22mo. old goes to no one he does not know.  If a stranger even looks at him he'll pitch a fit.  He's very attached to us and his some of his aunts and both sides of grandparents. 

Well my 22mo old was sitting in my sil's lap at service(right in front of me) and he started kicking and cutting up just to get out of her lap and we were perplexed as to why...he stretches his arms out to the man sitting next to my sil for this TOTAL STRANGER to pick him up.  This man was in our 'group' and he had been playing with the baby.  We were all floored...I don't know what the minister was saying at this point.

The baby lays on this man's chest and was rubbing the man's chest with his one hand.  The baby's other hand he held onto my sil's finger.

He layed on this man's chest and rubbed this man's shirt for a few minutes and then he starts to play with the man.  

We figure there was 'spiritual connection' (shoulder shrug goes here)

Then the baby holds his arms out for me to take him.(note: upon getting my baby back my baby had cigarette smoke smell all over his little hands and shirt. He had grabbe the man's head and was playing with him like he does with my dh also)..service let out and we went back to the lodge to eat lunch and pack and leave.  On my way to the car this man hugs me tight and says 'I want to thank you'...long story short...he had been in and out of jail and had substance abuse issues and tobacco-related issues.  He said that when my baby went to him and laid on his chest God confirmed to him that He loved Him...thru my baby loving on him...He loved him just as he was..filled with cigarette smoke and God knows whatever else..that God loved him.

I don't know how to convey the look that was on this man's face...the look of joy and love and appreciation of what God did for him thru my son.  He had fallen in love with my baby(he kept telling him he loved him-my baby-while he was in my arms mind you)..and even though he kept trying to kiss my baby this man KNEW God was speaking to him thru this little one.

That was such a precious moment for me and dh as we stood in awe at how God used our baby.  Mind you the baby would not go to this man after we left church.  I still stand in awe at the manifestation of the power of God I witnessed with my own eyes.  I know my child and I know he does not go to strangers..but he did for a moment in time...for the moment that God had need of my little baby...to create a moment in the life of someone who needs to know the love of God...to give them a moment in His arms...to give them a moment in His presence...to give someone a Holy moment thru one of my dc is just so awesome to me.  I don't even really know what to say about it...maybe I should stop here and stop trying to explain it....just let it be what it is...A HOLY MOMENT.

This past weekend my dh and I and children went to a gospel music 'retreat' that my sil treated us to.  I don't know what I expected...I guess I thought we were just going on a vacation. 

Well, we went 1 hr. into the mountains of NY to a Presbyterian Camp.  It had rustic lodging but we stayed in a lodge that had private bathrooms just like a hotel room.  There was a double bed and a single bed and the staff had rolled an extra cot into our room (nice size room) and we had brought the portable crib for the baby.  So each child had their own 'bed' and my and dh had the double bed...

This place gave us dinner on Friday eve, 3 meals on Sat. and 2 meals on Sunday...I was in heaven with that...it's been so long since I have not had to cook regularly.  A portion of this camp had been rented out by some friends of my sil so it was about a crowd of 30-35 people that did everything together. They had activities planned for us and late night and early morning we had singing/devotion service...just singing to the Lord in song and sharing what was on our hearts with one another.

On Sat. morning we made homemade bread.  I made 2 batches b/c after I made one I realized what an 'educational' experience that would be for my dd6 so I helped her make one also(and that was logged as school that day).

After we made the bread and let it rise we went to a puppet show.  How wonderful that was for the children.  There were only 4 children out of the whole lot of us and mine were the oldest.  The puppet show was put on my the puppet ministry of a church.  The puppets ministered about salvation and how all have sinned and how Jesus came to save us.  Then after the show my children were so intrigued they went behind the little 'stage' they had set up and these nice people let my children play with the puppets for as long as they wanted(I had to tell them it was time to go after about 30min).  They showed my dc how to work the puppets and how to do the 'voice' and move the mouth at the same time..how to move the hands with the rods that were attached to them.(educational?  I think so)  The puppet staff then shared about how some of the puppets are handmade and then some they bought on ebay. 

But what blessed me was the rain.  Yes it rained the ENTIRE weekend and it was cold(to me), kind of miserable.  We went to a gospel concert at the affiliate church on Sat. night and the presence of the Lord came down in that place like a heavy rain.  I felt like I had gone thru a carwash when I got home b/c my spirit was so refreshed and clean and clear and had been 'soaked' and saturated with the presence of Almighty God. 

Like I said before I don't know what I expected but I did not expect that(don't ask me why)  I think b/c I had gotten so caught up in the busyness of house, teaching children, dh, etc. that I just did not think it would be a time of refreshing for me.

In Sunday morning service the Lord spoke to my heart concerning the physical rain that I had grumbled about earlier that morning.  He told me that the natural rain was a prophetic symbol of what He was doing while we spent that time with Him at the camp.  So for me not be dismayed at the 'inconvenience' of the wet cold natural rain....it was needful.  The grass and trees, the earth need the water from the rain...just as our spirits need the rain of the Holy Spirit to pour (not just shower) but to fall heavy(like it was doing outside) on our spirits to wash away the discouragement and the debris left from everyday life.  To give us a new fresh, new, clean start; To cleanse and heal battle scars;  To invigorate and nourish our spirits with the life-giving moisture that we can only find in God.

Oh how my heart received that word...how my heart received the fresh living water from LIFE Himself...and just like u begin to see the leaves bud a little more, they begin to open up and the flowers after the rain lift their head to the sky from where the rain came from and open up to it so my heart just opened up to God.  All I could do was just worship Him after that and let the water flow from my eyes as I realized the Providence, the goodness, the mercy and lovingkindness of God in moving on my sil to pay for our whole family to go and experience this precious, holy time with the lover of my soul....in appointing us THIS time with Him.  He knew I need to be revived and refreshed.

I will never look a rain the same again.  I appreciate the natural rain and the needs it provides and I so appreciate the spiritual rain that washes over my dry places and give them life...

...from now on I say "let it Rain let it Rain!!!" 

Praise You Lord Jesus!  I give You Glory and Honor and Praise for all that You are and for all that You do. I worship You with everything within me.  I am Yours.  I belong to You.  I serve You and will forever love You!!

love,

deidra

Matthew 9:14-17

Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Praise God for bringing us THROUGH another year TO another year.

New things and even new beginnings can be exciting.   Many times experiencing the “new” requires that we get rid of or let go of  the “old”.   Entering into the “new” oftentimes necessitates that we undergo a process of change in our thinking and lifestyle.  The bible calls it renewing of the mind.

Romans 12:2

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God

Once our thinking has changed, made new to see and think(and live) as God does THEN we will be able to discern His will for our lives.  We will be able to receive the “new” thing He is doing.  We’ll be able to hold the “new” wine in our new “renewed” wineskin!!

Isaiah 43:19

¹⁹Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

²⁰The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

May God’s word shine all the more brightly this year through us and to us as we continue to lean and trust in Him to bring us through this new year, 2006.  I pray that we all remain stedfast, unmovable and always abounding in the work the Lord has given us to do in discipling our children for Him.  May we continue to follow Him as He takes us through our season of the renewing of our minds so that we can see the marvelous work He has done and the way He has already made in our wilderness and the rivers in our deserts.

Jer 32:!7, 27

Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee…

… Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?

Well, here I am.  This is the first time in a while that I FELT like blogging.  I've not been depressed or anything I just felt like it was time to FAST blogging.  Many times when we fast food at the Lord's direction we end up in a deeper relationship with Him, having gained control and victory over some part of our flesh and able to impart something new to others.

Well, since I have stopped blogging so much(and stopped thinking about what to blog)  I've been able to minister from my heart some things God gave me on WEAKNESS(see previous post) for my support group newsletter.  I feel like I am plugged back into God again. I'm more in-tune with my children, my husband, and in keeping my home in a presentable state.  I'm determined, from now on, not to let anything come between me hearing God.  Jill Novak and her post on How to Manage the Blog served as a confirmation in what I was feeling I needed to do.

This community has been such a blessing to me.  This is where I believe God led me to take the plunge and start studying and implementing the Principle Approach in my homeschool.  This is where I met my BPA fellow-homeschoolers .  This is where I started my first blog.  This is where I began to feel comfortable putting my thoughts down and have others read/critique/whatever and not be afraid to let my heart and thoughts be known.  God has really used it in my life. 

I'm well on my way with BPA.  I feel I have finally found that which was missing in our homeschool and HSB was the vehicle thru which I found BPA. 

So is HSB's purpose in my life been fulfilled?  I don't know.  I shall have to keep seeking God and keep being sensitive to His direction.  I find my desire to blog is not what it used to be.  I find I question the purpose of 'blogging' in my life(as I did at the beginning) and I still don't know.  I'll just continue to be obedient to the Voice of the One who has called me and given His life for me.

There are many things God brings us into or allows us to come into but He never intends for us to stay there.  It's like we are "passing thru"; so I want to be sensitive to the Lord to see what new things He is bringing into my life in 2006 and what things He is directing me to "let go".  I've found that no matter how comfortable we may get with the people, blessings, things, opportunities God brings to us that there is a season to everything and every purpose under the sun and if we are unwilling to let go of what God says is 'the old' (b/c we are too attached) then He CANNOT bring the new; 

I want to be able to be so sensitive to the Lord that when He makes a turn I know it, feel it, and turn right with Him; when He stops I stop; w/o words ever being spoken I want to walk so close to Him that I can follow Him just by the motion of His Spirit enveloping mine; so sensitive that I feel what He feels and respond when His thoughts turn to me; so close that I obey when He directs and hear Him when He whispers; I want to be so immersed in God that whichever direction the wind of His Spirit blows I flow with it.

I love Him just that much and my heart longs for Him all the time.  He is Greater than anything I can ever possess therefore He is the One I follow.

The following was born out of my time of much pressure and many feelings of weakness, doubt, and many questions.  While I do not know the reason for it all nor do I have answers to the questions this is what the Lord gave me coming out of this past week which proved to be a very trying and tiresome week for me as I struggled to keep up with my responsiblities as wife, mother, teacher, referee, etc and to keep my prayer life at a decent pitch.  My workouts have gone KAPUT...but that will probably be another saga :-)

II Corinthians 12:7-10

⁷To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Hardships….Persecutions….Insults…WEAKNESSES…

Such undesirable and unwelcome events….but it is one avenue that God uses to manifest His power in our lives.

Amid the many ‘stresses’ (good and bad) that life and especially homeschooling can bring, where feelings of inadequacy and feelings of being overwhelmed can abound, God’s grace is sufficient to “make up the difference” and carry us through to victory.

So many times we may try to compensate for our weaknesses(in parenting, teaching, etc.) in our own strength.  That only leads to discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and even hopelessness.  But God tells us that it is His Grace that will “fill up what is lacking…” in our lives, homes, in our efforts to obey Him, even in our children.

We serve THE All-Powerful God.  Is Anything Too Hard For Him?

So in our journey to disciple our children in the knowledge of God and His ways, even as we are hard-pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed….we do no lose heart…for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all…  (II Cor. 4:8-18)

Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…let us fix our eyes on Jesus… and lift up and strengthen the feeble arms that hang down and the weak knees…for we’ve not come to a mountain that cannot be touched…but we’ve come to Mount Zion, the city of the Living God and the heavenly angels…and to God The Judge of All…and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant…(Heb. 12:1-24)

Finally, I pray that we all be encouraged that God will indeed supply His strength and power in our time of weakness, as we consider His Word spoken by His prophet, to..

“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
       Who created all these?
       He who brings out the starry host one by one,
       and calls them each by name.
       Because of his great power and mighty strength,
       not one of them is missing.”

(And not ONE of them is lacking in anything…and neither will we!!!!!!!!!!!!)

“Why do you say, O Jacob,
       and complain, O Israel,
       ‘My way is hidden from the LORD;
       my cause is disregarded by my God’?

Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
       He will not grow tired or weary,
       and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary
       and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,
       and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.”

This is worth the time is takes to watch.....

click below:

Click here: I Can Only Imagine

be blessed!!

Giving Thanks for God’s Overwhelming Generosity

By Roy Lessin, co-founder DaySpring Cards

Everything in your life that flows out of love has come to you from God. Everything in your life that is good has been initiated by God. God has done everything for you, He is everything to you, and He is enriching other lives through you. His generosity is overwhelming, His blessings are limitless, His love is endless.

No one has favored you more than God. He has removed every stain of your sin, He has cleansed all the defilement of your iniquity, and He has silenced every voice of condemnation that hung over your head. He has saved you, redeemed you,  justified you.

All of God’s grace abounds toward you, all of Christ’s riches are made available to you, and all spiritual blessings are provided for you. In Christ, you have received the treasures that can never be taken away, the hope that can never fade away, and the life that will never pass away.

As you walk with Jesus day by day, you will find that your thankfulness to Him is an ever-increasing symphony of praise, building into a lifelong crescendo of gratitude that flows from your heart to His. You, who have so little, have received so much, because He has been so generous.

There are so many riches that He has given to you; so many answers to prayer that He has granted to you; so many kindnesses that He has manifested to you; so many joys that He has provided for you; so many mercies that He has extended to you; so many benefits that He has showered upon you. Everything you have has come from Him, and that is the reason why your heart can be so grateful.

Thank Him today because—
He formed you and made you.
He has given you the breath of life.
He has given you this day.
He is working in you to become all that He has intended you to be.
He is working everything in your life together for the good.
He is using your difficulties and trials to conform you to His image.

Thank Him today for—
The forgiveness of your sins.
The peace that passes all understanding.
The smiles that have come to your face because His joy is in your heart.
The comfort of His presence that has quieted your heart and calmed your fears.
The hope that is in you because He has promised to always be with you.
The place in heaven that He has reserved and has prepared for you.

Thank Him today with—
Words of exaltation.
Songs of celebration.
A heart of strong devotion.
Thoughts of deep reflection.
Acts of admiration.
Claps of loud ovation.

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Hebrews 13:15 (KJV)

This was touching...just thought I'd share it...