Reading Log

The big kids have a reading log for their classes; sometimes it looks the picture in this post
and sometimes we fail at getting it done what with all the craziness and having added another person to the mix.  It helps me to read to them when it's something I can get into also, so George MacDonald it is. 

The Wise Woman is great. The story is about 2 spoiled girls. One a princess and one a daughter of a shepard.  They are parralelled but MacDonald begins with the Wise Woman being summoned to the palace by the king and queen to advise them on why their daughter, Princess Rosamond, is so difficult and how she can be a better person. The wise woman interjects little as they tell her of the princess' horrible behavior and she finally tells them much of her poor behavior is their own fault.  The king, of course, is completely offended and feels he's unjustly been accused.  The wise woman takes on the case though and in the morning, the princess runs out of the court room after throwing a huge tantrum and it's then that the wise woman takes her to her cottage.  All along the walk to her cottage, Rosamond begins to push her boundaries with the wise woman to see what she can get away with, just as she does her own servants but the wise woman does not cater to Rosamond.  At her cottage, Rosamond is expected to do chores and earn her keep. This is basically where we have stopped for now.  George MacDonald can get flowery and drone on but I really enjoy some of that. When it comes to human nature, he nails it. He's great at describing types of people and he doesn't sugarcoat it, he calls it like he sees it.  To paraphrase about the type of person Rosamond is.  She thinks she is "Somebody", meaning she feels entitled to everything and that her needs and wants should come before anyones. She doesn't have a self esteem problem at all and thinks she's SO good when she has a change of mood. Which is another thing MacDonald says about a certain kind of person, their mood dominates and dictates how they will act that moment.  If they feel good then everything is going well, if they are in a bad mood everything is horrible and nothing can be right. We just can't be ruled by our circumstances or emotions.  Our attitude is our own choice. 

I'm so glad God is unchanging.  When we focus on Him then there is no time to dwell on all that surrounds us and we can be a more effective Christian and glorify the Lord.

Eternal = Forever

I truly wish as Christians we could all be of one mind.  I don't like confrontation and I do want us to agree and get along.  I have differing views from my brothers and sisters in Christ and it grieves me.  Calvinism, Arminianism, theistic evolution, Bible versions, tribulation/end times etc.  There are people smarter than me who I do not share in their beliefs because I cannot reconcile what I read in the Bible with what they are telling me or simply looking at in a logical way.  Eg if A is true then B can not be true.  There ARE absolutes.  Only one view is going to be the truth.

One subject along these lines that grieves me lately is eternal separation from God.  Universal redemption, it's not new (Ecc 1:9).  In fact George MacDonald believed in it and it came out in his literature, especially, Lilith, which is such a tragedy because it is so good.  To me, the best part is when Lilith comes to Adam and truly desires to be good and change.  He tells her first she has to open her hand that has been holding onto something for so long that her hand has basically grown together and won't open, even when she wants it to, so she tells him to cut it off, which reminds me of Matthew 18:6-9.

Anyway, I can't agree with universal redemption.  If it's true that God will let everyone in heaven regardless of whether they choose to believe in Him and ask for forgiveness, then what was the point of the cross?  Everything that lead up to Christ's birth, everything that went on in His ministry, everything that lead up to His death, burial and resurrection would have been for nothing because it doesn't matter anyway whether He died or even came to earth to begin with. It's like a parent who makes empty threats. It makes light of Jesus' sacrifice and His sacrifice is WAY to serious a thing.  To think, he broke fellowship with the God head for it!  How blasphemous to think of all He went through for Him not to mean business about eternal separation being real; for Him to just say after 10,000 years of eternity "ok, you can all come out of torment now".  I'll say it again, it makes light of Jesus' sacrifice.  It proves how dire the need is for people to come to His saving grace. Besides, If God reneges on that, what else can we NOT trust about Him?

Eternal = Forever

If eternal life means we are forever with God after time ceases (and a bit before) then eternal separation means forever away from Him.  One can not pick and choose the meaning of eternal to mean one thing in one instance and not in another.

Here is a good list of scriptures to support eternal separation being for forever. 

Holy vs Consecrate

A few weeks ago at church the pastor said consecrate instead of holy and it got me to thinking: what's the difference between the two?

Here's what I discovered on Blue Letter Bible .
Consecrate means a few things. "Dedicate" make new; to renew "perfected" complete: reached it's end. 

Holy means "Reverent" sacred character. "Sanctification" separated unto God. "Sacred" consecrated to God.

The difference I found was that in every instance holy is always to God but consecrate can be either to God or to evil as in EX 22:20 means to ban; to split, slit, mutilate. To divide. Prohibit, forfeited, to exterminate, completely destroy. 

Though I don't know much, about Hebrew grammer and the tenses, I think it's so wonderful to know that when God talks about those who are consecrated to evil there is never a future tense.

Everyone has the choice of who they are going to devote themselves to. 

I'm back...??

What a hiatus!..well, actually, let's be honest and say I may not stick with it this time either because, you see, I do have something to say and many thoughts and opinions but I am so busy these days. 

God has given me the desire of my heart and blessed us with a fourth and last (for sure) baby.  I had to put homeschooling off the table, which I hate.  I love to see my kids "get it". I hate that another person gets that experience with them. It was best for them though. I was WAY too unreliable with my 9 months of morning sickness.  Babies are ALWAYS a blessing but, as the Bible says, birthing is a curse and in my opinion so is pregnancy. I do enjoy some of the pregnancy of course but it was way harder in my 30s than it was in my 20s.

Rosh hashanah 2012

Christ's life coincided with Jewish feasts. His birth was during the feast of tabernacle, His death was at Passover. He left and gave us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. All of the feasts have been fulfilled but the trumpets (Rosh Hashanah). Last year I was introduced to the concept that the rapture would occur during this feast and it seems that more and more people are jumping to this conclusion. In a way, the rapture taking place at the feast of trumpets makes sense and it kind of feels good to have something to hold onto in my mind which I'm sure is a draw to these many but there are a few things I can't reconcile. The dates change every year but it's not hard to figure out so one could still not know the exact day but narrow it down to 2 (this year Sept 16-18). Also Christians are not Jews and are told in Rev 3:9 to not act as though they are. So maybe we should not tie the rapture of the church to the Jewish feast of trumpets. Every blog I have read of the passionate Christian making the case for the rapture to occur in a few weeks make it about them. They pray and feel that God has answered them directly (not saying God doesn't speak to us) but it's like "on the receipt the cashier handed me her employee number was 44357 and if you add them up it's my grandma's birthday from the year when she turned 77". A whole lot of personal meaning but nothing for the church body. The Bible says a few times "no man knows the day or hour" Matt 24 and 13. Actually, these verses are talking about Christ's 2nd return not the rapture but in a few places we are told the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night (2 Pet 3:10, 1 Thes 5:2) but a thief doesn't tell you when they are coming to your house, so essentially it is the same concept in a diff context. So while their stories are nice and no doubt bring them comfort, why would God reveal these things to only them and not all of us? Well, I'm here to tell you He wouldn't b/c He is not a respecter of persons. Act 10:34, Romans 2:11. Maybe it will be this feast of trumpets or maybe it will be Halloween or maybe this afternoon.

Wow! Really?!

You've heard in real estate it's all about location, location, location!  Well in the Bible it's context, context, context!  How often (silent "t" people)  I have heard and used Psalm 46:10 out of context.  "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.". The first part of this scripture has inspired beautiful songs and words of comfort & encouragement in times of distress. If taken in context however, it's clear this is not supposed to be a comfort to God's people but a statement to the world powers who have come to battle against Israel (Rev 6:12-17 & Rev 19).  To paraphrase Dr. Ron Allen, whom I first heard correctly exegete this passage, the context is when Israel is turned on by every nation and it is what God is saying to those who have come to war against His people and Himself as he returns to save Israel, conquer the earth, and begin His millennial reign. Dr. Allen says "be still and know that I am God" is like saying "shut up and listen, I'm in charge."  Actually, to a believer this should be comforting, God in charge, but to whom it is meant for it is not meant to be comforting.

Who is this passage meant for? Rev 9 tells us the men who endured the demon creatures that ^"17 having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and" road horses who's "heads were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone...¹⁹ For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.  Rev 9:20-21 explains "and the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."  Wow!  Really?!  ALL the grass has been burned (Rev 8:7) a flaming mountain is cast into the sea (v 8) causing a third of the sea to turn to blood because a third part of the sea life died and a third of the ships were destroyed (v 9).  Then a star falls on a third of the rivers/lakes and turns that drinkable water to poison (v 11).  Sun, moon, and stars lose a third of their light and then the crazy demon locusts all preceding the demon riders on horses with fire-breathing lion heads and serpent-headed tails come along and these men still want to commit idolatry, murder, use drugs, fornicate, and steal?  The men who (Rev 16:8-11) "blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory (v 9) and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds (v 11)."  That is who "be still and know that I am God" is meant for. The men who live through all this rejecting God the whole time, shaking their fist in the air at Him, going to war because they would rather be the authority in their own life than to serve the one who gave them life and lets them continue to have the ability to fight Him and the free will to choose to reject Him.  


If you would like to hear the sermon by Dr. Ron Allen you can find it at Bayside Community Church's (Tampa FL) website http://www.baysidecommunitychurch.net/resources.html under sermons.  It's entitled "Let's Turn That Puppy Over" from 10/17/2010 or download the sermon.net app and choose Bayside Community Church as a channel. 

Turn on the lights!

Lighting in churches really bothers me.  I know most church goers today like the dimmed lighting but I don't get it.  Who wants to feel like their in a coffee house (at best) listening to a casual poet illustrating his points with the latest movie/tv show.  It sets a certain atmosphere which, and this is for another time, plays into the music, causing such an emotional response but let's face it, who can argue with experience?  Hmm..oh, I know, lets ask what does the Bible say about light?  (1) We are the light of the world (Matt 5:14), why are we meeting in dimmed lighting?  Are we trying to hide from the authorities so they won't break up our service, like our brothers and sisters in China?  Not to mention my straining eyes, even though everything is on a screen, I still like to look at my Bible, which again isn't so readily available to our brothers and sisters in China.  (2) God is light, there won't be a need for the sun in the millennial reign of Christ because God will be the source of light (Rev 22:5).  He is very bright.  Remember Moses' encounter with Him in Ex 33:18 ff?  So while we don't want to make it so bright that it's uncomfortable, the mood lighting really gives a false sense of our future worship and experience with God.  What's wrong with natural lighting?  Or if your sanctuary doesn't have windows turn on the lights!