A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.
He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.' The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.'
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift.'
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.
On the platform sat the painting of the son The auctioneer pounded his gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?'
There was silence.
Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.'
But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?'
Another voice angrily. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandt's. Get on with the real bids!'
But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting.' Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
'We have $10, who will bid $20?'
'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.'
'$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?'
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son.
They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the gavel. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!'
A man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the collection!'
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'
'What about the paintings?'
'I am sorry.. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.
The man who took the son gets everything!'
God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE...THAT'S LOVE
Guess-where I found this cartoon. This is a cartoon from the UK. Here is the article. This article talks about the mess their health care system is in and it discusses a type of rationing.
If you have been following the campaign promises of the people running for president, you have probably heard about universal or (government controlled) health care. Of course it is being discussed under the guise of "affordable coverage" for everyone.
Now Hillary has said she would make health care affordable for everyone. (Yeah right.)
Who can decide what is affordable for every family?
Senator Obama is promising the same. In fact he says if a person already has insurance the only thing that will change is the premiums we pay. They will go down. You can read that here. (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/#lower-costs)
Now as tempting as this sounds, let's think about it. Now I must admit that it sounds great!
I mean every citizen would now have affordable health care. Not only that, but he promises to give us something comparable to what the federal employees (members of congress, etc.) have.
Are you kidding me? We still don't have their wonderful retirement plan, we are still paying into a failing social security system. (In fact Dave Ramsey says we would be better off putting our money in a mason jar, we would get back more by doing so.) How many politicians kids do you suppose go to public schools. (Very few I am sure.) So they are above the systems they create.
And we must consider where this money to pay for all this affordable heath insurance premiums would come from. Can you guess? It will come right out of our pockets. The pockets of the working families!
Now let's think about things a little more. So far the government has done a lousy job of managing our tax dollars. Social Security is a nightmare. And they are now telling us that unless it is changed the people in my age category cannot even expect to get more than 75 cents for every dollar they contributed.
So now since we know that they are bad managers of money, proving so by our billion dollar deficit and failing Social Security system, failing medicare and medicaid.
(Where the institution gets to decide what is covered and what is not.)
Should we really consider giving them even more money to mess up the health care we do have.
As Christians living in America we can help the future of our country by praying for our leaders, elected officials, representatives, and for the next person to become president. We can also voice our opinions peaceably by our vote..
I must admit that I am not a very political person. Before the election process began, I never watched the news and over the last month I have been watching the coverage daily with interest. When my dh would come home I would tell him everything I heard in the news etc. He could sense the worry about all the things going on, and the fact that we feel limited in our candidates. Now, I keep a note and take those things I hear about and concern me into prayer. Since some of these things concern me and my family (since we live in this country.)
You know the news tells all the bad stuff going on in the world. It rarely focuses on the good. But my world has many good things in it! Especially since I know God is in control! Even when it does not look like it...All things work together for our (those called according to his purpose) good.
When you look at Jesus' life, he came into the world in a time when Rome ruled the world. He wasn't caught up in all the political propaganda of the time. Instead he was focusing on HIS mission-To seek and save those that were lost. And in this time...This is our mission. To take the gospel out into all the world so that others may come to know HIM. I believe it is the reason God brought the pilgrims to America. He knew we would be instrumental in getting the good news out!
This world-is on it's course-and God knows that-He is not caught off guard. Everything works into HIS plan. (Not ours.) We are not here for our own lives, we are here for HIS life to be made known to those who are perishing.
So FEAR NOT-Pray, pray, pray and when you have the opportunity to voice your opinion do so peaceably in the processes we are given.
Well I have been tagged by my friend Rhonda. I am supposed to write 7 things about me. So here goes.
1. After High school I joined the military.
2. I have a degree in Electronic Engineering.
3. I have a BS degree from seminary.
4. I served as a Missionary in Mexico.
5. I played the clarinet in school.
6. I color my hair because my natural color is now grey!
7. I am so glad I homeschool because I would hate having to get up so early every morning to get
them to public school in time. (I love a more relaxed morning.)
I am clueless who to tag, almost every blog I visit has been tagged by someone recently. So if you are reading my blog and havn't been tagged latedly-Consider yourself tagged!
A strong tower. The righteous run into it and they are safe. Proverbs 18:10.
Have you ever woke up with a song on your heart. Something your spirit just seemed to be singing inside. This was in my spirit this morning. What a great confidence we have in the Name of the Lord-it truly is a Strong Tower-a refuge.
I was looking at these scriptures and if you read on you see the difference-the people that were consumed were those that ran to Berith-they were worshippers of Baal and they were trying to take refuge in their gods.
But they were consumed. If you notice the wording they ran into a strong hold.
But those that ran into the strong tower were saved. The Name of the Lord is a strong tower-the righteous run into it and they are safe!
Judges 9 42 The next day the people of Shechem went out to the fields, and this was reported to Abimelech. 43 So he took his men, divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he rose to attack them. 44 Abimelech and the companies with him rushed forward to a position at the entrance to the city gate. Then two companies rushed upon those in the fields and struck them down. 45 All that day Abimelech pressed his attack against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he destroyed the city and scattered salt over it.
46 On hearing this, the citizens in the tower of Shechem went into the stronghold of the temple of El-Berith. 47 When Abimelech heard that they had assembled there, 48 he and all his men went up Mount Zalmon. He took an ax and cut off some branches, which he lifted to his shoulders. He ordered the men with him, "Quick! Do what you have seen me do!" 49 So all the men cut branches and followed Abimelech. They piled them against the stronghold and set it on fire over the people inside. So all the people in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women, also died.
50Next Abimelech went to Thebez and besieged it and captured it. 51 Inside the city, however, was a strong tower, to which all the men and women—all the people of the city—fled. They locked themselves in and climbed up on the tower roof. 52 Abimelech went to the tower and stormed it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, 53 a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull.
54 Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can't say, 'A woman killed him.' " So his servant ran him through, and he died. 55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they went home.
56 Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. 57 God also made the men of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.
I am reading Corrie Ten Boom's "Clippings from my Notebook"
In one of her entries she wrote something about what Spurgeon once said.
"Oh to have one's soul under heavenly cultivation, no wilderness, but a garden of the Lord, walled around by grace, planted by instruction, visited by love, weeded by heavenly discipline, and guarded by divine power. One's soul thus favored is preapred to yield fruit to the glory of God.
This is something to mediate on. We as Christians are the garden of the Lord!
". . .we seem to have lost the knack of appreciating the ordinary. We provide our children with so much that the extraordinary isn't special any more, and the subtle rhythms of daily life elude us altogether. We do so much and savor too little. We mistake activity for happiness, and so we stuff our children's days with activities, and their heads with information, when we ought to be feeding their souls instead." - Katrina Kenison, Mitten Strings for God - Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry
I think this is another reason I seem to love the winter time. We stay home alot more. It gives us alot of time to refresh our souls and consider what really is most important!
I must admit that my 2 favorite times of the day are early morning and late in the evening.
Before my dh leaves for work on cold mornings he builds a nice fire in the fireplace. It makes it so much easier to get out of bed. I stumble to the den and lay on the couch for a few minutes just soaking in the glowing warmth. The quietness in the house, the lights in the den are down low and morning is just appearing. I just bask it in. Here I can pray silently in my heart. Many times late at night before bed I will go into the den and sit by the fire and read my Bible or another book I am currently reading.
I thank God for the priveledged life I now have. My life hasn't always been so priveledged. It definitely hasn't always been easy. I think back at all they years when I wasn't surrendered to God's will. I remember many times hating my life, wondering if it mattered. For so many years I lived in less-less than God's perfect will for my life. Less than His best. The life I lived, all the hurt and pain, was because I refused to surrender to God. All He ever wanted for me was His goodness.
I look back now and see how crazy it is to run from God thinking you will save your life, when in reality you don't even have life until you come to Him. But God in His mercy continued to call me and woo me to Himself. Today, I not only bask in a fire made from wood, but in the knowledge that God truly loves me, He is pleased in me, in fact He delights in me. How priveledged I am!
Romans 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. NKJV
Romans 8:38 For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Amplified)
I love the way the Amplified version adds in those words beyond doubt am sure. Because I know that is how I should be. I mean it is what I should believe. Not only should I believe that, but I should be able to walk in the knowledge of how great God's love for me is.
The truth is most of us don't. While it seems so much easier to love others espeically our family-imperfect as they may be, for some reason it is hard for us to love ourselves. (Perhaps because we know ourselves more intimately.)
Right now I am reading a book called Girl on A Swing. By Nancy Kennedy. (She is the same Author of the other book I am reading. Move Over Victoria, I know the Real Secret. I began reading Move Over and then in the midst of reading it I found Girl on a Swing. (Another PB swap find.) Anyway this book has spoken so much to me. She shares her own struggles of seeing herself as God sees her, believing God loves her, seeing herself as deeply loved.
Last night I was asking my husband, "I wonder if the reason we don't love and trust God more is because we really don't KNOW him like we should." So I began looking up scriptures on God's love-which is very comforting. I think the most comforting thing is knowing this:
There is nothing I can do today or tomorrow or ever that will make God love me less.
There is nothing I can do today or tomorrow or ever that will make God love me more.
In fact "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (When we didn't love him, when we didn't trust Him, in fact, when we really didn't even care or notice him. When we were reveling in darkness, even then He loved us.")
His love for me is already Perfect! He loves me simply because I am His. Just like I love my children simply because They are mine! They don't have to earn my love. They don't have to perform for it. I extend it to them because I will to do it. Just like God does!
Well if you read yesterday's blog about my having to wait for news from the Dr.'s office then here is the update. Long Story short. I had a CBC blood test ran last Tuesday and should have had word no later than Thursday that all was fine. Well by Friday I was getting a little upset about the fact no one had called me. So over the weekend I just kept trying to put it out of my head.
I mentioned it to dh and his reply was-"Well you know people never take care of business and don't always follow through like they say they will." Well I called again Monday morning and left a message the lady I spoke with also told me that usually by now I would have had my results back. (Ummm that did not make me feel better.) So during the extended wait-my mind begins again thinking all kind of things...
"Gee what could possibly be wrong? Did they find something? Are they retesting it to be sure, are they waiting for more results, what if they did find something? Etc. What if I have_____..What if______? What if ______? " And I won't go as far on this blog as my mind took me but by 2:00 I had pretty much worked myself into a FRENZY! By this time a stronghold had been built. A fortified city full of delusions taking me into panic, worry, doubt etc.
So when the Dr.s office finally called me -I braced myself. and here is what they said "Everything looks fine, all your tests look good and came back normal. Your HDL was a little elevated but your overall cholesterol was fine, etc. " So I repeated to her "So everything is fine?" She replies "Yes." I said "Well they told me I would have my results by Thursday, what took so long, I was getting pretty worried." Their reply "They sent the blood work report to the nurse and she has been out of the office for the past few days."
So all this stuff that my mind made up-just an illusion-my crazy thinking! A perfectly logical explanation etc. (Just like dh said-since she was out no one else was taking care of business.)
I must admit it took me about 3 hours to calm down and get it all through my mind that I am going to be okay! And today I was just thinking isn't that like the enemy? He builds up fortresses in our minds, Lies-deception, False fears, worry. doubt, etc. Then when the truth comes forth-it is like blowing on a house of cards-they all fall down and the stronghold (false fortress) is destroyed.
So tell me-do you think I am an obsessive person? I mean do you think I am off my rocke? Is this kind of thinking normal or what? I mean I am just wondering. (Is it lack of trust?) Anyone else ever go through stuff like this? Anyway all I know is next time-I will remind myself of this experience!
Well last Tuesday I had my yearly physical. They draw blood to make sure everything is okay. So I am told I should get a call withing 24-36 hours about the blood work. So that means that by Thursday I should know something.
But Thursday comes and goes with no word. So I try to be patient and Friday comes and goes with no word. (And now I am getting worried.) Why haven't they called, could something be wrong etc.
Now I know that we are not supposed to worry. Don't you just hate it when this kind of stuff happens? People say they are going to do something and then they don't. So all weekend I have been trying to put this out of my mind, thinking well perhaps they don't have my correct phone number etc.
So today I call the Dr. office and tell them I have heard nothing. That was at 9 AM and now it is almost 1 and still I have heard NOTHING! AAARRRRGGGHHHH...You know I HATE to Wait. I am impatient. I really was patient the first couple days, but now, a week later, I'm not feeling so kind.
Anyway, there is nothing I can do right now but WAIT. It seems sometimes God places us in these places and all we can do is wait. You know Jesus said that worrying won't add one minute of day to our lives. The news will come and whatever it is, I will have to deal with it then. Good or bad.
But you know I was thinking about how many times I worry when I have to wait. If my husband isn't home from work and he does not call, and I cannot reach him, I try not to, but things start churning in my mind... In fact there is absolutely no proof to support all the thoughts going on in my mind. FEAR-is False Evidence Appearing Real.
What if........What if....... In fact I have to say that there have been times I have really gotten worked up and upset and then an easy explanation comes of why I had to wait. Perhaps It is GOD just trying to tell me-"Don't worry, Lean on Me. Trust Me."
Each year I seek God for a new Theme to go into the year on. This year I really feel it is the year to Liberate! Liberate in 2008.
The closer I try to get to God, the more spiritual I try to become, the more I really see how much the flesh is actually in control of my life. So there are things I am seeking God for this year, victory over the flesh-in many areas-mostly my thought patterns, and of course being short tempered, impatient, etc.
I have already began seeking God and I have a new hunger and thirst to know him as never before. I am desiring to become more Christlike. More loving toward others especially those in my family.
I am asking God to produce HIS fruit in me. (Because the fruit I have been noticing lately just doesn’t seem like something I would want to eat.) So many times we just want God to zap us! "Zap me God and make me holy, make me Christlike, give me immediate patience, love, unselfishness etc." But it doesn’t happen over night. We are being conformed to his Image. As we spend more time with Him, we will become more like Him.
I am beginning a 52 week devotional as well called “Create in Me a Clean Heart” Scroll down and you can get more details on how to obtain this for yourself. I also am very excited about a book I just began called “Move Over Victoria, I Know the Real Secret.” (Freeing your mind from the lies that bind.) In this book Nancy Kennedy talks about Idols that grab for our attention. (Modern Day Idols.) Gotta love it-I got it on Paperback Swap! The introduction alone really spoke to me, and I know that I have idols myself that need to come down. Hopefully many if not all of these strongholds will be broken in my life this coming year. And I will be liberated-totally free to be ALL that God wants me to be!
Welcome to our blog! We are a Christian Homeschooling family and this is the place where we can share our learning, lives, and thoughts with those we love.
