The Path of Shalom
Feb. 6, 2007
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A Creature From Science Fiction?
No, this is one of the strange creatures of the deep. It is an annelid worm found at a deep sea vent. You can see more here. Now how can anyone believe in evolution with such a variety of unique creatures upon this planet?
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. Because, knowing God, they didn't glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools (Rom 1:18-22)
But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God's wrath through him. (Rom 5:8-9)
Love and shalom,
Serena |
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Jan. 29, 2007
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Shalom - Peace Be Unto You
(This is an excellent article on the meaning of shalom by Clarence Wagner of Bridges for Peace.) I found it here.
One of the first words you learn when visiting Israel is shalom. That’s because it is used to say “hello” and “goodbye” to someone - somewhat like aloha is used in Hawaii. When you think about it, to wish someone “peace” is a very nice thing. And, if shalom only meant peace, that would still be great. However, in Hebrew, shalom has so many more meanings than the word “peace” in English, which simply means, “freedom from strife and disorder; harmony; and to be quiet.”
Interestingly, English seemingly gets its definitions from the Greek. The Greek root word is irene. It is the same as a lady’s name, except that it is pronounced EE-ree-nee. The basic meaning is a harmonious relationship between people, nations, etc. It can also mean peaceful, as in quietness of surroundings or the heart. The limitations of the English and Greek meanings for the word “peace” are obvious when we see how different words have to be used in these languages (and other languages, as well) to convey the varieties of meaning packed into this one Hebrew word. For example, in the Septuagint, the Greek word soteria, which means salvation, and not irene, has to be used to convey one of the meanings of shalom, which is “salvation.”
The Hebrew Root of Shalom?
The foundation of almost every Hebrew word is a root composed of three consonants, and each root has its own fundamental meaning. The other letters that fill in around the three-consonant root to make a word can be varied in many ways to make other words. However, something of the basic meaning of the root always remains in the meaning of all the other words. The root of the word shalom is sheen-lamed-mem (µlv), transliterated in English as SH-L-M. Its basic meaning is “wholeness” or “completeness.” Literally hundreds of Hebrew words are built from the root SH-L-M, and all of them have some connection to this basic meaning. For example, ShaLeM means “complete,” and is also the name of the city of Melchizedek mentioned in Genesis 14:18 (transliterated in English as “Salem”). SheLeM means “peace offering,” which was part of restoring a broken relationship with God; SheeLeM means “he paid,” that is, he completely fulfilled his obligation.
Hebrew is very efficient and has a relatively small vocabulary, approximately one-tenth that of English. One word can often serve a variety of functions. One sees this with the word shalom, which is usually translated as “peace,” but means more simply “tranquility” or the opposite of war. A quick look at a number of Bible passages shows other meanings of the Hebrew word shalom - meanings that have not always been conveyed well in translations in other languages. In some of the references you may not see the connection, but the word shalom is present in the Hebrew. Let’s look at a few of them:
FRIENDSHIP: The shalom between friends has to do with trust (Jer. 38:22), familiarity (Jer. 20:10), or in a relationship of “peaceful understanding” (Zech. 6:13), where the word for “peace” is prefixed to the word for “friends.” Psalm 28:3 mentions those “who speak shalom but harbor malice in their heart,” and Psalm 41:9 speaks of betrayal by a “man of shalom (peace).” Both passages contrast friendship with treachery, not peace with war. Similarly, in 1 Kings 2:13, when Bathsheba asked Adonijah, “Is your coming shalom?”, she was not asking if he had come peacefully. Rather, she was asking if he had come with friendly intent. Although he answered, shalom, he was lying. Even though he did not come in war, he did not come with friendly intent, but rather with treachery in his heart. When Yeshua (Jesus) used the expression, “son of shalom (peace)” (Luke 10:6), He was referring not to a peace-loving man, but to a friendly, hospitable person.
WELL-BEING: This usage of shalom has to do with one’s total well-being, including his health and prosperity, which are gifts from the Lord. One sees this meaning in 2 Kings 4:26, where the Shunamite woman was asked by Elisha’s servant if it was well with her, her husband and child. In the original Hebrew text the question was simply, “Do you have shalom?” Today, one hears this same familiar usage in modern Israel when you inquire after a friend’s well-being by asking, “ma shlomcha?”, literally meaning, “How is your shalom (well-being)?” And, if you want your friend to convey your regards to someone else, you simply tell him, ”dreeshat shalom,” which means, “Ask about the shalom (well-being)” of that person. The Psalmist is clearly addressing the health aspect of this meaning of shalom when he says, “There is no soundness in my flesh ... no shalom in my bones” (Ps. 38:3). Shalom in this passage is not translated as “peace,” but as “health” to convey this meaning.
SAFETY: We read in Judges 11:31 that Jephthah tragically vowed that if he returned from the battle “in shalom,” that is, in safety, he would sacrifice to the Lord the first living thing that came out of his house to meet him. Shalom here is used with the same meaning in Isaiah 41:3, “He pursues them, advancing in shalom (safety) ...” Yeshua used the word shalom in the same manner in a teaching recorded in Luke 11:21, “When a strong man fully armed guards his own dwelling, his belongings are in shalom (safety).” Isaiah draws a direct connection between righteous living before God bringing shalom, as safety and tranquility, when he says, “The fruit of righteousness will be shalom; the effect of righteousness will be shalom (quietness) and confidence forever. My people will live in dwelling places of shalom, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest” (Isa. 32: 17-18).
SALVATION: Shalom is also used as a parallel to other biblical synonyms for salvation, such as tsedakah (righteousness) in Isaiah 60:17, and yeshuah (“help”) in Isaiah 52:7. This passage from Isaiah 52 receives added significance when we realize that the words which literally mean “peace” and “help” were intended as synonyms for salvation: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger announcing shalom, heralding good news, announcing yeshuah, telling Zion ‘Your God is King!’”
The Apostle Paul understood the “shalom, shalom” of Isaiah 57:19 as a reference to salvation, not just peace. In his explanation in Ephesians 2:13-18, he makes this clear when he says of Messiah Yeshua, “For He Himself is our shalom (salvation),” who brings together the Jew and Gentile into one (vv. 14-15); and, “He came to preach shalom ... for through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (vv. 17-18).
One finds the same implication in the angels’ song recorded in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth shalom to men on whom His favor rests.” Even the well-known verse in Psalm 122:6, “Pray for the shalom of Jerusalem,” would be understood more fully if shalom were translated “salvation” rather than “peace.” However, we must keep in mind when considering this passage that the word shalom, like all Hebrew words for salvation, refers to physical as well as spiritual deliverance. The Hebrews did not compartmentalize things as neatly as other cultures do.
Throughout the Newer Testament, persons who had association with Yeshua, either directly when He ministered, or indirectly through spiritual salvation, were described in terms of shalom in all its varieties of meanings. Zechariah and Simeon, for example, expected this shalom (Lk. 1:79; 2:29); the angels heralded it (Lk. 2:14); people who were healed were told to “go in shalom” (Mk. 5:34; Lk 7:50); the people sang about it at the Truimphal Entry of Messiah Yeshua into Jerusalem (Lk. 19:38); and when Yeshua wept over Jerusalem, He lamented that they did not understand that His coming meant shalom (salvation) for them, and they had missed it (Lk. 19:42). Before Yeshua’s death, He bequeathed shalom to His disciples (Jn 14:27; 16:33), and on the day of His resurrection “the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Yeshua came and stood among them and said, ‘Shalom be with you!’” (Jn. 20:19-20). In fact, He said this phrase three times in this passage (cf. Jn. 20:21, 26). Various Newer Testament leaders spoke of salvation as the “good news of shalom by Yeshua HaMashiach” (Acts 10:36), the preaching of shalom (Eph. 2:17), and the “gospel of shalom “ (Eph 6:15; Rom. 10:15). It was declared that the “God of shalom” brings salvation to the whole man - body, soul and spirit (I Thess. 5:23). Man’s participation in the shalom of God through Messiah’s finished work of redemption is also mentioned frequently in the Newer Testament.
As you can see, shalom is a very flexible word and can refer to much more than peace as merely “freedom from strife and disorder; harmony; and to be quiet.” Yet, all of the many meanings of shalom, including friendship, well-being, safety and salvation - clearly reflect various aspects of “completeness,” the fundamental meaning of the Hebrew root SH-L-M.
Shalom in Our Everyday Life
The secular Western culture of today displays a typically Greek orientation to the concept of peace. It sees peace as a condition that persists within the individual as a state of being that is emotionally felt, internally generated, and having no influence of a divine being.
However, in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Older Testament), the writers thought just the opposite of this. They did not conceive of any human condition as occurring independently of God’s controlling will and presence. This awareness of God gives a sense of wholeness and success to the business of living, which is marred only by human inadequacy and sin. They believed that God is the creator of peace in heavenly spheres, high above all human affairs, and that the pledge of shalom and its realization appears as human prosperity and wholeness of life (Gregory, 1976). You can see this concept in The Lord’s Prayer, when it says, “Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10). The term shalom is often used to describe prosperity of a material sort, which for them was associated with God’s covenantal promises or the manifestation of God’s presence.
Prophetically, shalom is a major part of the Messianic promise of future blessing that provides salvation on all levels. It is shalom that is promised for Israel, which would also extend to the rest of the world. The prophets wrote of a coming shalom that is accompanied by restored relationships, spiritual restoration, a cessation of war and conflict, and physical comfort. God promises to Judah and Israel: “I will bring health and healing to it: I will heal My people and will let them enjoy abundant shalom and security ... I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against Me ... Then this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and shalom I provide for it” (Jer. 33:6-9).
What Does This Mean to Us?
The ultimate shalom that we can have now is that shalom which is found in our relationship to God, that manifests itself spiritually and materially.
On the most basic level, the shalom of salvation is a doorway opened freely by the Lord for us to walk through so that we can enjoy His shalom in every way. In Messiah Yeshua, our shalom (salvation) was purchased, if we choose to accept it. Paul says, “For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making shalom through His blood, shed on the cross” (Col. 1:19-20).
Afterward, we can find true spiritual and emotional shalom, as well. Paul gives us the formula: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the shalom of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Messiah Yeshua. Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of shalom will be with you” (Phil. 4:4-9).
Finally, we can know real material shalom as well-being and a sense of “prosperity” that exists for us no matter what our material circumstances suggest. Paul says, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:11-13). It is a deep-down contentment in the Lord where His Presence with you is a shalom that can carry the believer above temporal circumstances.
On all levels, it is this supernatural “shalom that passes all understanding” that is often witnessed by the world and draws men to the God of shalom. Most believers have had those experiences where circumstances dictated hysteria; yet through prayer and trust in the Lord, His presence brought a supernatural shalom and sense of well-being, assurance, safety and the hope that all would be well.
That kind of shalom can only come from God and cannot be conjured up. This is something worth celebrating.
In the days of the Temple, of the many offerings made unto the Lord, one was called the shelem or peace offering. These were offered by those who were at peace with God. They were made as an expression of gratitude to God and to have fellowship with Him (Lev. 3). An ox, sheep or goat was sacrificed: its blood poured over the altar, the fat burned as a sweet savor to the Lord, part of the flesh given to the priest and the remainder eaten at the sanctuary by the sacrificer and his friends (Lev. 7:15f; Dt. 12:1,17f). Also, a meal offering and drink offering were made along with the meat offering. The meal denoted the fellowship which existed between the worshiper and God and was a symbol and pledge of friendship and shalom with Him. This offering was a joyful public acknowledgement of relationship with the Lord, which showed their thanks to Him as their Source.
Today, outside the circle of those who have faith in the God of the Bible, God is not seen as the Source of their well-being, prosperity, safety or salvation. Most humanists see themselves as the source of their own destiny, and God is left out of the equation. Yet, most of them do not have genuine shalom in their lives. Real inner shalom and contentment is not something the ways of the world can provide for people. This must come from our Creator, Redeemer and Teacher - the God of the Universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel.
For a world crying for shalom, Messiah Yeshua is the answer to overcome the inner turmoil so many feel today, “for He is our shalom.”
When Yeshua was talking to His disciples about the time when He would go to be with the Father, He promised them His shalom. He said that the Holy Spirit would come to be their Comforter and Teacher. He would remind them of all the things He had said to them (Jn. 14:25-26).
Then He said, “ Shalom I leave with you; My shalom I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid” (Jn. 14:27). It is interesting that He told them that He stressed He would not give them the peace of the world; that is fleeting, temporary and inconsistent. Rather, He promised them the shalom of God, which is the essence of salvation, wholeness, well-being, friendship, safety, prosperity, health, tranquility and contentment. Who could ask for more?
Don’t wait any longer. If the shalom of the Lord that passes all understanding is ours for the asking, then let this day be your day to experience this great gift of the Lord.
Shalom from Jerusalem,
Clarence H. Wagner, Jr.
Bridges for Peace
International Director |
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Oct. 7, 2006
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Getting Settled
We have been in the "new" place now for a week. We ended up moving in
by Wednesday night and had the duplex all cleaned up by Thursday night
with a small carload of stuff to get on Friday morning. We finished
getting our stuff out of storage on the first. We had the help all last
week of a recently retired man and his pickup truck from our
fellowship. On Wednesday night we had his help and one other pickup
truck and got almost everything out in four trips and two with the car.
Rick and I had to go back so he could get some papers done that were
due the next morning. That was one grueling day! On Thursday we took
down the computer and moved it and the computer desk. They were pretty
much the last of the stuff. What a relief!
The day after we
moved in, there was some activity at the front of the trailer. We found
out that the landlord was putting a covered front porch on it. There
wasn't even any steps up to the front door. We weren't too concerned
since we will mainly use the back door anyway. Our friends across the
road said that he didn't even do that when his own daughter lived in
the place. It is big enough to sit out and watch the world go by.
I've
been having to do the usual projects to make my stuff fit like putting
shelves in the kitchen cabinets and laundry room. There were huge
spaces with no shelves, so I got wire shelving, plus made use of some
lumber I had and got busy and made some. Then I got the kitchen and
laundry settled. I just have bedrooms to do now. By the end of next
week, we will be all settled other than curtains on the windows and
that should get done pretty soon.
Our daughter, Rachelle, left
for Iraq the beginning of the week. Please pray for her safety. It is
hard that she will be over there for another year.
Well, that is all the time I have to update right now. I'm glad for
those of you that stop by and check on me. May G-d richly bless you all
with His shalom and joy!
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Sep. 23, 2006
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Moving - Again!
Life is crazy around here again. Since we are staying here in this area
for Rick to go to grad school, we realized we did not have to stay in
this very small duplex apartment until after he graduates. Then we
found out about a 3bd/2ba mobile in the SW part of town. It is across
the road from one of the families in our fellowship, it has lots of
shade, a huge yard, a covered deck off the back and much more space
than this little place. Even though it is more rurally located, it is
almost a mile closer to the university. Our bedroom also has a bedroom
door, which is awfully nice after not having one since we moved out of
the mobile we were renting until the end of April. I think most of you
moms and dads out there would agree. The landlords are really nice and
are even letting us move in without a deposit. I am so looking forward
to moving, though everything is in upheaval again. It is even crazier
with it being in the midst of the High Holy Days and with the trip to
Florida this last week to get my son and bring him home.
Speaking
of the trip to Florida, it was really nice, though Arielle's baby did
not cooperate and be born while we were down there. Joelle and her son
got to go with me. Actually, we rented the car in her name because she
had the good insurance so we didn't have to buy the rental car
insurance, cutting the cost considerably for the trip. That means that
Joelle did all the driving and I was the navigator. Since she is a good
driver, but gets nervous with other peoples' not so great driving, it
was a wonderful arrangement - at least in my opinion. We had to leave
my youngest daughter home with Daddy since there was not enough room
for everyone coming back from Florida if she came with us. She loved
having all the daddy-time and going to classes with him and doing the
food bank with him. She even got to spend the night with a friend on
Thursday since that is Rick's marathon day at school. He has a stretch
of classes that go from 3pm until almost 9pm with only enough time to
get to the next class. That is besides his noon class and picking up
for the food bank before that.
We decided to drive all the way
home on Thursday, instead of stopping on the way home. We got home at
2:30 in the morning and then Joelle and I both had trouble going to
sleep because of the late night caffeine we had ingested (cappucino for
me and dark roast coffee for her) and so it was a short night for us.
We had to go get Gaelyn in the morning from her overnight and I had to
take Joelle and Tobey home in the afternoon. I got back just in time to
eat and get to our Erev Yom Teruah service. We had a great time blowing
the shofars and were back for our normal service this evening with a
yummy dinner, too. In 10 days it will be Yom Kippur and then in 4 more
days it will be Succoth. Yom Kippur starts on the night of the 1st of
October and we will be finishing moving out of this place in the
morning that day. We are already taking loads of boxes over, but we
will have help that day with pickup trucks and manly bodies to get the
furniture all moved over. That is going to be just wonderful after Rick
and I have done almost all the moves we've done the last 2 years all by
ourselves. (We did have help unloading the truck when we moved to the
last mobile and I was so grateful for it at the time.)
All I can say is that G-d is SO good! May He richly bless y'all with His shalom and joy!
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Sep. 11, 2006
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Still Here!
I've been busy and also just haven't had the motivation to post on my
blog. I know I've got things to do here, but there is just so much life
to live in the "real world." We found a fellowship here in our town. It
is Bethavara Hebrew Assembly. Presently there are 50 or more people
meeting together on Saturday evenings. We are quite encouraged. They
had been meeting in a mobile home and outgrew it and got a storefront
downtown. That is when we heard about it. I guess they were being
incognito since they didn't have room for visitors in the mobile. Well,
they've been getting them now and if the rate of growth keeps up will
outgrow this meeting place in a short time. It is one of those places
where you feel "at home" and we are glad that we have been led to it.
Rick
is graduating in December. He will have a degree in psychology, but
decided that pursuing becoming a professional counselor did not fit him
in the context in which he would be forced to operate. The ONLY thing
that sets a person free is the BLOOD and the CROSS of YESHUA the
MESSIAH. The ungodly philosophies of ungodly men will not bring true
freedom. They might give a bandaid, but the root of the problem will
not really be touched. Since his other love and desire has been to
teach, he is going to put the psych degree to good use in special
education. We don't like public schools and won't send our children to
them, but there needs to be a witness. Contrary to some stuff said in
the blogs about how unmanly it is for a man to be a teacher, there is a
real need for men in the schools. There will be children to fill the
public schools no matter what we believe about them and many of those
children do not have good male role models in their lives. Our children
are not mature enough to be "missionaries" in the public school, but
adults can be, just as "tent makers" are a witness in countries that a
missionary cannot get into. When Rick graduates he will be going into
the Master of Arts in Teaching (Special Education) at the university he
has been attending. Since he did not take the education track, he needs
to get the stuff to get certified as a teacher. We are glad for some
clearer direction on all this. We also know that it is all subject to
change, too, but have shalom that this is what we are to do.
We
just made a quick trip to where Arielle lives to take our son, Jared,
to see his dad. He was supposed to fly down on US Air on Friday and
when his dad went to pay the unaccompanied minor fee on Wednesday, the
airline informed him that they don't take unaccompanied minors on
flights with a layover. He couldn't get any flights within 3 hours from
us that weren't layovers so his plans fell through. Rick suggested that
if he paid for the rental car and the gas, we would bring Jared down
and come and get him when the visit is up. So we left after Rick's one
class on Friday morning and he had picked up the food for the food
bank. I got to see Arielle and her family on Friday night and my other
daughter, Lael, and her family on Saturday night. Lael lives less than
20 miles from Arielle. We got to visit some dear friends Saturday
afternoon since both Lael and Arielle had prior plans that couldn't be
changed at the last minute. It was a good trip, though quite tiring
since it is 600 miles one way.
I wish I had a picture of
Arielle. She has a huge baby belly. She got her dad's skinny genes, so
she is tall and slender and she looks like she has a bigger ball than a
basketball under her clothes. She is hoping and I am hoping that she
will not go the whole 2.5 weeks that she has until her estimated due
date. I got to feel the little one moving and really enjoyed seeing her
son, Vincent. He had a great time playing with his aunt and uncle and
had no time for any of us big people - even his dad when he came home
from his night shift. He is quite a handsome little fellow and quite a
charmer, but he sure can pitch a fit when he doesn't like something.
Arielle will be quite busy when the baby is born - for sure! Maybe by
the time we go down to get Jared, we will have a new grandchild to
meet. I'm hoping!
May G-d bless y'all with His shalom and joy!
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Aug. 4, 2006
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Are you discouraged? Having a bad day?
Jul. 28, 2006
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First Day in Canada
 Welcome to Canada
We entered Canada the evening of June 6. We then started looking for a motel to stay in. We checked on a couple in Magog at the top of Lac Memphremagog. They were more expensive than we wanted to pay. Actually, who wants to stay in Magog anyway? The roads were more difficult to figure out than ours since they were in French and they don't have all the billboards that we have. We finally went to Granby because we were getting closer to Montreal and it was getting late. We stayed in Motel Granby. We found out later that Granby's claim to fame is its casinos. We still paid more than we wanted to stay but we were getting our introduction to how expensive it is to live in Canada.
We went onto Montreal in the morning. We arrived almost 2 hours before our appointment to meet the manager of the apartment complex so we could get in (they aren't open on weekends). I had to go to the bathroom so bad and we didn't know where anything was and everything was in French. We decided to start walking around the block and see if we could find a restroom. The first building we came to looked like a public building. It was actually a school of fine arts we were to find out. As we were going in the door a woman came in with us. It turned out she is the weekend receptionist/security and she directed us to the public restroom. She was very friendly and helpful, even allowing me to try and phone the apartment manager, Wendy, from the phone there. I was only able to leave a message and tell Wendy that I'd try to phone again later. Nataly told us how to get a map of the city by going to the Metro (the subway) and getting a map from them. We took off on a walk to explore our new surroundings since we had quite a bit of time to kill. We did find an entry to the Metro even though it wasn't the one Nataly had directed us to and got a map. That was very helpful and we about wore it out by the time we left Montreal. When we got back to the school of fine arts, Nataly said she had received a call for us. I phoned Wendy and she said as soon as she was done with her dinner, she would meet us.
We waited outside the apartment for what seemed forever. Rick checked the door and saw that Wendy had already arrived. She showed us our apartment that we had reserved. She seemed like she was hoping we wouldn't like it. It was really small. It had a room that was the livingroom/kitchen, a small bedroom with no door and a small bathroom. There was a loveseat and they had set up a rollaway twin sized bed in the livingroom in between the desk with the TV on it and the loveseat. The table was probably 2 foot by 3 foot, if that and there was one chair to it. There was another desk with 3 big drawers in it in the bedroom just like the one in the livingroom. It was really small, but we did not want to go looking for anything else and knew we could survive it, so we went ahead and rented it for the $850 Canadian that they were asking. Then we unloaded our stuff and worked on packing it away. We put the basket carrier out on the small balcony and the canvas bag with our camping stuff in it. The street light in the picture is right outside our bedroom window at the bottom of the window. We were on the second floor and on the corner of busy Rue Ste. Urbain and Rue Milton. We were on the edge of the downtown district. Our building was only 11 floors high and shorter than others in the area. Tha apartment goes from where the children are on the balcony over to the street light. You can see that it was very small.
Our Little Apartment
Rick had talked to someone about how to get to Walmart since we needed to get some food and things to eat it with. We were hoping to use our gift card that we had been using along the way on the trip. We still had some money on it. We found our way to Walmart, though it was a stressful experience driving in a city we did not know where everything is in a different language. The directions weren't the best, but we did make it there. It was as busy as any Walmart in the states on a Sunday afternoon. There was a Wendy's nearby, so we opted out to eat first since we were all starving by then. The Walmart was not a SuperWalmart (they don't have any there) but we were able to get some basic food stuffs and some plates and bowls to eat on. Since there were not enough dishes in the apartment and I didn't know if I could get any more, even though Wendy said give her a list of what we needed, I got some of those heavier plastic disposable plates and bowls. I could reuse them and throw them away when they got in bad shape. (One package of each lasted for our whole time in Montreal.) We saw Arabs, Hasidic Jews and other nationalities while in Walmart. We also got introduced to the high prices we would be paying for food. We weren't able to use our US Walmart gift card because of the exchange rate.
When we got back to the apartment, we worked on finishing settling and figuring out how to arrange it better so we could get all 3 children in the livingroom. It was supposed to have a hide-a-bed, but only had the loveseat. That became Izak's bed. Gaelyn got the rollaway and Jared got the twin-sized airmattress on the floor in between the loveseat and desk. (We moved the desk/chest of drawer thing down so we had room for the rollaway against the wall the next day. Then it was wall-to-wall bed when we had it all set up at night.) Our first day in Montreal was ended and we were done in and all "hit the hay."
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Jul. 22, 2006
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Today
We had a hell of a day yesterday taking our son Jared to the Atlanta
airport. Other than picking him up the end of the month, I will be
perfectly content to never see it again. The customer service was
horrible for someone there for the first time and even though we were
there an hour before flight time, he missed his flight. The lines for
security were soooo long. In the process of running to try and get
there before the flight left, I managed to lose my driver's license. I
had it in my hand with his boarding pass and my pass to be out in the
secure zone. I didn't want to mess with my purse through security so
only took my driver's license. Anyway, it was a very stressful day and
a very hot ride on the way back as the temps got into the mid-90's and
humid before the storms.
A Cherohala View
Today,
Rick decided he wanted to go somewhere instead of just staying home. He
asked me where I wanted to go and I said the mountains. The much nicer
weather today was the drawing agent to get out. We decided to go on the
Cherohala Skyway again. It is one of the prettiest drives we have been
on and this has been our 4th time since we moved to this area. It goes
over a mile high and the temps there were actually cool and we had to
partially close our windows. We picked up stuff at the grocery store on
the way for a picnic lunch and enjoyed it with a beautiful view.
Here is a link to a slideshow of the Cherohala Skyway.
If you ever can go on a drive over it, I highly recommend it. We
decided to come back a different route this time (usually we go through
Murphey, NC). We came back on US 129 heading towards the Maryville
area. Now that was beautiful, but it was a stressful road to drive on.
It has bunches and bunches of hairpin turns and no guard rails. There
are drops for hundreds of feet straight down the mountainside in some
spots. It may have been our last trip on that particular stretch of
road. There were motorcyclists galore on it and even filming crews to
film them as they made their adventurous trek. You can read more about
that here. Even though
it was not as pleasant as the Cherohala, we still had a lovely Shabbat
today enjoying the beauties of our Father's creation.
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Jul. 18, 2006
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Le Grande Aventure (Part One)
On the Way to Canada
Since our lease was up on the 2 bed/1 bath mobile we were renting, we decided to put everything in storage and rent something else when we got back from our trip. I can tell you I was hard to live with for that last couple of weeks, trying to pack things for the trip and also move out of the mobile. Talk about stress! We had bought a basket carrier to attach to the top of our 1990 Toyota Camry and one of those canvas bags to put stuff in. We had our camping equipment to pack and enough stuff to live in Montreal for a month. I needed to take clothing for both warmer and colder weather. We moved most all of our stuff into storage on the Sunday before we left and then basically camped out in the mobile until we left on Friday. I was trying to get a bunch of sewing done and we had the place to clean up to leave as we like to leave a place. AND I had the packing of what we needed for the trip to do. Rick had finals that week and was pretty busy with studying and helping with everything but the sewing. I did not get all my sewing projects done. Oh well, that's life when you wait and try to do too much in the time you have to do it. Maybe some day I'll get over being a procrastinator (though I'm better than I used to be in that area.)
We put all the stuff we needed to pack in the car and on top in one room and then moved it as we cleaned each room. I packed most of the camping stuff in the topper other than the sleeping bags and the air mattresses that we needed on the trip. Then I worked on packing the trunk and the car. I had to cull what we were taking and reduce the number of clothes we were taking. You should have seen that Toyota. I bet people don't know how much can be crammed into one of those little cars besides five people. I did the packing because I inherited the ability to put a lot of stuff into a space from my dad. Rick happily conceded the job to me and was the carry it out to the car guy. Our landlady came to inspect on Friday morning and was glad to refund the deposit since everything was clean and in good shape. (We really needed that for the trip!) She even prayed over us for our trip. The children and I went to do laundry while Rick had to take his last final and then we made our last trip to storage. We could barely shut the trunk of the car and everyone had stuff packed around them and under their feet, but we were on our way!
We drove to NE Tennessee the first night and stayed with our friends, Chris and Beth. We met them on the blogs and count them as precious friends. We stayed with them until Sunday and then headed out for Rick's home area in the west panhandle of West Virginia. We drove through Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio to get there and stayed that night about 50 miles to the west in Cambridge, Ohio. The next morning we headed over to the panhandle and Rick's hometown of Wellsburg. All of it was very interesting to me as ever since we had left our friend's place in NE TN it was all new territory to me. Rick was in for a shock when we got to his old hometown and he wrote about it in his new blog, Crimson Commentary. The neighbors who had been a refuge to him while growing up and had kept him from starving fed us lunch and we had a wonderful visit with them. Then we drove around and saw some of the places that were important in Rick's life while he was growing up and visited a cousin and an aunt of his. We went onto Pittsburg that evening, since we were getting together with Rick's girls, Alana and Erica, the next day and we had a really good coupon for a motel not very far from them.
  The Neighbors We met Alana and Erica on Tuesday morning and we had a picnic in the park. We hadn't seen Caila since she was a baby and we hadn't ever seen Patrick, Alana's children. Gaelyn and Izak really enjoyed playing with their neice and nephew, who are more like cousins. The time went fast and they had other commitments in the afternoon, so we went back to the motel just before it started to rain.  Gaelyn and her sisters. The next morning we headed for Fort Necessity on our way to the other panhandle of West Virginia to meet an internet friend and her family that I have known online for about 6 years. We had a beautiful drive through that part of Pennsylvania and enjoyed Fort Necessity. Outside the stockade at Fort Necessity We stayed with Bob and Misha in the eastern panhandle that afternoon. They have 6 children and the older 2 boys were about Jared's age and they had a great time together. Gaelyn had fun playing with the younger ones and I got to enjoy holding their baby. The children all went to Awana together that evening. We found our now "in real life" friends to be very hospitable and warm and enjoyed our time with them. The next morning we left for New Jersey where we were going to stay with some more internet friends we had not met yet in real life - Chris and Dawn and their family of seven children. We had a busy day on the way planned with stops at Antietam, Gettysburg and driving through Lancaster county in Pennsylvania.   Antietam We found our friends, who live outside of Trenton, to also be gracious hosts and we enjoyed our fellowship with them. Our children had a great time playing together and we could hardly visit over all the noise. Dawn also had a baby that I got to enjoy holding. They let us use their computer to check our email and Rick found out that he had got all A's for the spring semester. He was not expecting that as the Research class had been very difficult and he thought he would do good to get a B. It was a first in his life and I'm proud of how hard he is working on his studies. The next day we headed for New Hampshire and the Atlantic coast. We drove around New York City on the furthest out interstate loop and then went through Connecticut and Massachusetts before getting to our destination in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. That was one of our longer travelling days, but the children did really well in the cramped conditions, in fact they did very well the whole trip. We really tried to not have real long days and we stopped pretty frequently because of the "sardine" situation in our car. The next morning we visited Fort Constitution and went up a little ways along the Maine coast to see a lighthouse and say we'd been to Maine.   Fort Constitution   Fort Constitution lighthouse   Lighthouse at York Harbor, Maine The children and I took our shoes off and we played in the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. BRRRR! It was cold, but a delightful memory was made. We really liked the New Hampshire/Maine coast and the old Cape Cod houses. We had sun in the morning, but as we made our way back across New Hampshire we got into rainy weather again(we had a fair amount of that on the trip). We drove through the White Mountains and I told Rick that I could be persuaded to live there in spite of the cold. They are probably the most beautiful part of the Appalacians I have seen. They reminded me just a little of the Rockies, as they were more rugged than the more southerly Appalacians that we are accustomed to seeing. We then drove across the northeast corner of Vermont and entered Canada early in the evening of June 6th. Playing in the Atlantic Ocean
One of the things that I really enjoyed about the trip was the feeling of going back in time as the scenery kept going back to an earlier spring that we had experienced weeks ago. We saw dogwoods blooming all the way to New York and even lower Connecticut. I did not realize they bloom that far north. They had just finished blooming in our area as we set out on the trip. We had just transitioned into the more summer green in the trees and by the time we got that far north, we were back to the very early spring green colors. I love spring and this year I got to experience the longest spring I probably ever will get to enjoy. I will try to write about our time in Montreal soon. Love and shalom, Serena |
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Jul. 11, 2006
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Back Home
Hopefully, we will be back online the 13th, but we are home. I'm using a computer at the university right now. We travelled almost 4500 miles and are all travelled out. We are moved into a duplex apartment until my husband graduates in December and we go onto the next part of this great adventure of life. I'll update when we are online at home again. It was a good trip, with its difficulties, too, but G-d took care of us and provided. I'm looking forward to blogging again. I have quite a lot to recount of our almost 2-month adventure to Canada and parts of the US we had not seen before. I can tell you, though, I'm glad to be home.
Love and shalom,
Serena |
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Mar. 3, 2006
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Going to Montreal
Feb. 6, 2006
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A Matter for Prayer
My husband is a student at a christian university. They are going to be visited in a forceful visit by a "gay" advocacy group. The group claims the university does not admit "gay" students. Since it is known that there are quite a few "gay" students on campus, though they are not openly pushing it, that would not be true. The university requires their students to sign an agreement covenanting to practice their sexuality in the context of male-female monogomous marriage, as the scriptures teach. Since unwed girls do get pregnant there, obviously not all students obey the commitment they made, but that is not new.
Since my husband came out of that life by his own choice and because of the work of G-d in his life through the bloody atonement of Yeshua for him, he is quite concerned about this situation. He is getting more opportunities to share his testimony and the power of our G-d through the Cross of Messiah and His resurrection. Please pray for him that he is bold and full of wisdom in sharing what G-d has done in his life. Pray for the university to stand strong and have wisdom in dealing with these people.
These people have targeted christian ministries and universities to force their agenda upon them. They want to get endorsed as legitimate and without sin in what they practice. Of course, G-d loves them, just as He does any other person He created. What is at issue is whether He created their sexuality the way they claim He has. From what the scriptures teach, we all make choices in how we behave in that area, and we are able to restrain ourselves by choice. Any relationship of that sort outside of the confines of a monogamous marriage relationship between a man and a woman is sin. It always has been and it always will be.
To read an edited version of the letter he received from the president of the university (to not give away the location of the university or our location) and a link to the site of those that think they are working the works of Messiah in forcing this issue, go here. These people who are doing this claim to be christians and they disguise poison in their rhetoric and twist the scriptures, so be careful in reading on their site. It is not the work of Yeshua the Messiah, who shed His blood on a stake outside the walls of Jerusalem, but the work of the false messiah whose days are quite short by the evidences of these kinds of things.
Come quickly, Lord Yeshua, our Messiah!
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Jan. 24, 2006
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Life and Struggles
I have had some express that they have missed me. Thanks! I just have been dealing with life and though I am not a person who usually struggles with depression, I think I have had some of that this winter. At least, it is a sense of grief and a feeling of being overwhelmed. I am also trying to break the internet addiction and am overcoming it to a certain extent. I spend less time on here than I was, mostly checking email which I haven't been good at answering, either, because of my tendency to withdraw right now, so there aren't many there, as well.
Rick got sick with a virus during finals the beginning of December and by the time Joelle, her baby and our son left for Florida on the 16th it had gone to his lungs. At that point, I think it was viral pneumonia. Antibiotics and steroids would do more harm than good, so we hit the poultices and herbs. He has had bronchitis for weeks now, but he is finally shaking it. It is good that the only thing he really had to do during his winter break was to pick up and deliver the food for the food bank. He was to deliver it to the married student housing complex and had very few people come out to get it, so we had to find some others to share it with since it was way more than we could use. It was fun to bless others that needed it, though. Our neighbor knew a guy on disability and he knew other folks that needed it, so we would take it to him and he would pass it on. This semester, Rick's schedule is such that he is not able to pick up the food and he is volunteering 2 days a week for when students come to pick it up. I have to say I liked being able to get some every day during the week. At this point, it has been a major portion of our groceries. Our Father continues to faithfully provide for us.
Rick is back into the swing of the new semester. It looks like a lot of his classes this time are ones where he has papers and projects. Last semester he had a lot depend on taking about 3 multiple choice tests. For some people, that would be wonderful, but he has always had trouble with multiple choice tests. When he took the exam to get his real estate license in Missouri, it took him five times to pass it. He has had some testing here that shows that it is his worse modality and he will not do as well in classes that depend on multiple choice tests. At least he passes them with at least a "C." His best type of classes are ones where he has lots of papers. He usually gets an "A" in them or at worst a high "B." I don't think that there should be multiple choice and rote memorization in college. That is for the professors because it takes less work to teach and evaluate that way. It does not prove learning, which is much more complex. Of course, we are finding that higher education is really a joke in a lot of ways, and especially in a so-called "christian" college. Much of what is taught is without a scriptural viewpoint, but a humanistic, socialist-marxist viewpoint. I'm sure that a lot of parents would reconsider the university he is attending, if they knew how it shakes the faith of their young adults. I know that Rick can be a thorn in the side of some of the professors, since he speaks up for the truth in his classes.
I'm trying to become more organized in running my home and in our home education. I am a "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" type of person and have never successfully kept to a schedule. Now the idea of developing routines and making charts for me and the children is more doable, so I am working on that. The world would probably say that I have ADD, but I can really concentrate on some things to the exclusion of everything around me. I have struggled with this area of my life my whole life, though, and at 50 it can be a little discouraging. I'm also a turtle when it comes to getting things done. It is probably perfectionism, since my husband teases me about it, but I find doing a job slowly and thoroughly is better than fast and making a big mess and having to do it over. I have got much better at keeping my house looking nice, but I have to say a big part of that is having a cleany husband who doesn't add to the children's mess, plus my desire to make it nice for him. He never, ever criticizes me when I fall behind but just grabs a broom or vacuum or does some laundry. I know I am really blessed by this and the fact that he lived on his own for so long and always had an orderly home. In fact, it was always immaculate whenever I went to visit him. It was one of my fears before we married, that he would not be able to handle living with his messy wife. He has relaxed his standards a little and I have improved a lot with his acceptance and encouragement. I did find a really good site with lots of help and encouragement. It is Large Family Logistics and I sure could have benefitted from it years ago. I have problems with the "me first" stuff and "goddess worship" on the Flylady site, so unsubbed from that when I found this.
I actually got two aprons sewed for me. That is something I have been wanting to get done for a while. I made a special pocket on them for a tablet and pen to write down ideas and things I remember or notice that need to be done. I am really good at not remembering it when it is not in front of me. I just did that with my oldest grandchild's birthday. I remembered it days before and thought, "Oh, I can get a letter to her written and sent off on time." Then I did not write it down and the days slipped by me, the day was upon me and I got busy and it was too late to phone and the next day it happened, too. Two days after her birthday, I phoned and wished her a happy birthday. Me and time just don't get along too well. I joke and say that I was made for eternity since I don't do well with time. If I had a digital camera, I would post a picture of my aprons. I want to do one more so I never have all of them in the laundry. Then I have lots more projects that I have procrastinated getting done that I want to get done. I like sewing and have considered doing it for others. I just am not a good businesswoman. I'm more inclined to give things away than charge for it, so am not so sure I would do well. It sure would help at this time to be able to do something from home. I can sew about anything and have done lots of different kinds of things as well as altering patterns so they can be made into clothing to nurse a baby modestly, but not have to be button down the front stuff.
Rick's foreign language requirement is what would hold him up from graduating as soon. He had French when he was in college over 30 years ago. I think his academic advisor saw that and didn't think it important to have him start in language right away. Well, he could not go into intermediate French when it was that long ago he had it, so he is auditing the elementary French this year and because of needing two more semesters of it, it would have put off graduation until May of 2007. Then he found out about taking immersion French and being able to get the whole two semesters done in four weeks. Lee University is going to approve his doing so and we are planning a trip to Quebec, Canada in May to take an immersion French course in Montreal. The whole family is planning on going. We are all working on learning French. We were given a homeschool French curriculum, Le Francais Facile!, and the children and I are working on that as well as whatever we can get our hands on. When the excess tuition funds come in, I want to get the Jesus Film in French and some other movies and tapes. I think they would really help. So anyway, please pray for us in this area, for it all to come together. If he completes the immersion French program, he will graduate in December of this year. Then we need prayer for what we are to do then. We really do need our Father's leading in our lives.
Joelle and Philip need prayer for direction. If you read her blog, you know that she is struggling with the uncertainties of her life. I will find it quite difficult if she moves clear across the country, but I want our Father's will for them. We got a really nice letter from Philip and it is obvious that G-d is doing a work in him. It is good when we see some of the answers to our prayers. I can tell you that we can get really frustrated sometimes. My children's lives has been one of the things that has weighed heavily on me lately. I was given a promise years ago in Isaiah for my children. I wrote a dear friend the other day, who does not know that promise and she wrote back those very verses to me as an encouragement and exhortation. It is: "You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, and your gates of emeralds, and all your border of precious stones. All your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the shalom of your children. In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not be afraid; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. Behold, they may gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and brings forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness which is of me, says the LORD." (Isa 54:11-17) The specific verse that I was promised for my children was verse 13, but almost the whole chapter was given me when I was going through the breakup of my first marriage.
My oldest daughter, Lael, lost someone very special to her and her daughter, Brianna, on December 23rd. That is Brianna's other grandmother. Even though Lael is divorced from Brianna's dad, Rosemary continued to be a wonderful second mother to her and grandmother to Brianna. She was a woman of faith and I know she is rejoicing in the arms of her Savior, Yeshua. She lost two breasts to cancer and then had been surviving heart disease this last two years, but the cancer came back in her bones and it was her time to go home. I'm glad that she was able to prepare Brianna, herself, before her time to go came. Lael has been living for the world ever since her dad told her and Joelle what he was doing. It was a real blow to her and she has not recovered yet. I just keep praying and did need the above reminder for her. My daughter, Rachelle, who is in the army is living with a guy right now. She has not wanted me to know, but since Joelle is living at her duplex and she is not there, it came out. That has also been very hard for me. I think as parents who have been redeemed from our own awful lives of sin, we desire so much for our children to not go through the same things. My greatest desire is that they really know Yeshua and the best Father there will ever be through Him. When John says that he has no greater joy than that his children walk in truth, I know what he means. I know that Joelle and Arielle can be such an encouragement when I see them growing in the Truth. I desire so much that all of them would have His shalom in their lives and their lives would bring glory to Him.
One big prayer request I have is that YHWH would bring some "in real life friends" into our lives that love Him and are "real." I appreciate the blog-friends we have and even the email and phone relationships, but I just feel such a need for "in your face" type of fellowship. Everything we have is long distance right now. We are not going to find it in a "church." We are in a very "religious" area and that is not what we want. We want reality. I know that might bother some who read here, but we have gone through too much in that area and the whole format does not lend itself to down-to-earth, real fellowship. BUT, a few families that want to meet together and "encourage one another daily, lest your hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" would be wonderful. We are not sufficient unto ourselves.
I hope that catches you up a little anyway. I really need to know my Father's will about blogging and what He really wants me to do in life. I do find that it is so easy to get caught up in the pride of people commenting and telling you how great you are doing. I don't want that! I want my life to bring glory to Him and it is hard when I realize that the most subtle of sins has crept in again. I know I could turn off the commenting feature, but then there is no interaction and that means a lot to me. I just wish it could be "face-to-face." May YHWH bless each of you with life, shalom and joy!
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Jan. 24, 2006
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A Prayer Request
A friend of mine, who has had several miscarriages is possibly going through it again. Please pray for her. This is really hard for her. Thanks!
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Dec. 2, 2005
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Living by the Law?
A comment that a fellow blogger left on
my blog has motivated me to do a post about the law. I have found that
most redeemed people that I know have been brought up as I have been
with Greek thinking. We do not truly understand what the Law is because
of our lack of a Hebrew mindset. So first, I want to establish that
what we refer to as the Law is called Torah in Hebrew. If you will go
to some other articles in my blog about Torah, you will gain more of an
understanding than what I will write here about that Hebrew word and
its meaning. Very simply, Torah is YHWH's teachings. It was given to
His people, Yisrael, in a covenant that is likened to a marriage
covenant by Hebrew scholars, in other words it was the Ketubah between
YHWH and Yisrael when it was given. It was never meant for a means of
salvation. It was given after redemption by the blood of a lamb put on
the doorposts and after they were baptized in coming through the sea. I
find most people that are having trouble with "the Law" are having
trouble with the idea that the Yisraelites kept it for salvation. They
did not. Any redeemed Yisraelite was redeemed by trust in YHWH and the
blood that only stood for the blood of our precious Redeemer, Yeshua
the Messiah. I want to make it very clear that Torah has never been for
any person's salvation. The keeping of it will never save anyone.
The Torah was given as an absolute. YHWH, in His love, gave His
teaching and His heart about how to live life to His people. It would
separate them from the other peoples of this earth that did not know
Him. If they lived it, they would show forth His glory. Sadly, because
they were just like us today, they got the wrong motives for obeying
the Torah. They thought it would make them spiritual, that they would
gain favor with YHWH and some even thought that if they obeyed, it
would result in their salvation. So, something that a loving G-d gave
to them for their good became something that they would be prideful
about. YHWH wanted His ways to be known unto the nations that they
might know Him also. He wanted Yisrael to be a light unto the nations.
Instead, His people who were lifted up with pride about having His
Torah, looked down on those of the nations. They were not to live as
those of the nations did, but they were to have His heart for them and
show forth His love to them. Yes, they had the Torah, but they did not
obey it and instead, they were rebellious. Because of turning from the
words of life, they experienced the ways of death. BUT, there was
always a remnant of those who honored YHWH and His Torah and desired to
obey Him. Now, what is so different with us today? We just substitute
the newer scriptures and our own traditions and we look with contempt
so often on those who are "sinners" and "heathen" and are caught in the
tarpit of sin.
Today, most of Western Christendom has been
taught that "the Law" is done away with and there has been a derision
that has developed toward it. They will even purposely break it to show
that they are free from it. I have to think they do not truly
understand the Torah and have ignored Yeshua's words when He said that
He did not come to destroy the Torah (He would have been speaking
Hebrew/Aramaic and would have called it Torah, not Law) but to fulfill
it. They ignore that He said until heaven and earth passed away, not
one jot or tittle of the Torah would pass away. They ignore what He
said about men who would teach and keep His Torah as opposed to those
who would break it and teach others to do so also (Matthew 5:17-19).
They even teach that Paul taught a derision towards the Torah and that
he taught men to break it. Did he? I can tell you, he did not. He
taught against the legalistic keeping of Torah for salvation that the
religious promoted. He taught against that it was by keeping the Torah
that a person belonged to YHWH. He upheld the Torah and honored it. He
also lived it in his own life, which I have also been taught about
derisively by those who oppose the Torah.
There are at least
three places in the Prophets that YHWH tells His people that He was
going to write the Torah on their hearts.(Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel
11:19, Ezekiel 36:26) He also told them in Deuteronomy - "The LORD your
God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the
LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may
live. The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies, and
on those who hate you, who persecuted you. You shall return and obey
the voice of the LORD, and do all his mitzvot which I command you this
day." (vs 6-8) When you study these things out, you will see that the
time that this happened was on Shavuot (Pentecost) when YHWH's
Set-apart(Holy) Spirit was sent to indwell those who trusted in Yeshua
as the One who was the bloody sacrifice and had risen and ascended to
YHWH. Now, if the Torah has been written on our hearts, if He has
circumcized our hearts so that we will love Him with all our heart and
soul, if Yeshua has said "If you love Me, you will keep My
commandments," how do we have an excuse to purposely break it? Why
would we even WANT to purposely break it? Paul admits to the struggle
in keeping the Torah because of the struggle with our sinful nature
that manifests itself in Torah-breaking, BUT, Paul said we have the
victory in Yeshua:
"So then, the Torah is holy, and the
commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is
good bring death to me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order
that it might be brought to light as sin by producing my death through
that which is good, that through the commandment sin might become
utterly sinful. For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of
the flesh, sold into bondage under sin. For that which I work, I do not
understand; for I am not practicing what I would wish, but I am doing
the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish, I
consent with the Torah--that it is good. So now, it is no longer I that
work it, but sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells
in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but to
work of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but the
evil that I do not wish, this I practice. But if I am doing the very
thing I do not wish, it is no longer I that work it, but sin that is
dwelling in me. I find, therefore, the law that evil is present in me,
the one who wishes to do good. For I rejoice together with the Torah of
God in the inner man, but I see another law in the members of the body,
waging against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity of
the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will
deliver me out of the body of this death? Thanks be to God through
Yeshua the Messiah our Lord! So then, I myself indeed with the mind am
a slave to the Torah of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin."(Rom
7:12-25, Messianic Renewed Covenant version)
I have one more
thought to consider here. If you know anything of Hebrew understanding,
the Word is the Torah. The Jewish people refer to the whole of the
scriptures that they hold as the Torah and specifically the first five
books. But they do refer to the whole thing as the Torah. Now what we
have been given since Yeshua was here is just an extension of that
Torah. It is founded on the foundation of the first five books and is
further revelation and commentary on the Torah and further history of
those who love the Torah. Now, John says that the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. In Greek, that is "logos," but John was Hebrew and
I can tell you that He was thinking Torah because the Hebrews loved
Torah. Yeshua is the Torah made manifest. He is the fulfillment of it
because He embodies it. He is the Author of it and He is the keeper of
it. Now if the One that we love because He gave Himself for us is the
Living Torah, how can we treat the Torah that He wrote contemptously?
In that light, do we keep the Torah or does the Torah keep us?
When it comes to Torah, we cannot live it in our own strength. Paul
teaches us that and so does our experience. BUT, we have that Torah
written on our hearts. It is our loving Father's instructions for us to
live in harmony or shalom with each other and with Him. We do not gain
any favor or salvation by obeying it, but we do gain the abundant life
that it shows forth. We do know His absolute when we give the Torah its
proper place. We cannot even substitute the obeying of Torah for our
relationship with the Living Torah. It is by our relationship with the
Living Torah, Yeshua the Messiah, that we can obey it at all. Even
then, it is a life-long process of having our minds and hearts renewed
and stumbling and His picking us up and saying "this is the Way, walk
in it." What I want to see is that those who claim to know Him have a
reverence, a respect, a love for His Torah instead of treating it as a
little thing or even as some do, with derision. The newer scriptures
did not replace the older ones as I already said. They are further
revelation and commentary and if we do away with the older ones, we
have no foundation for the newer ones. We also will have no foundation
for our lives. There is a mystery in the tie between the written Word
of G-d and the One who is that Word made flesh. Hebrews says that the
Word is alive and powerful. Well, there is only One who is that! Let us
honor and love Him by honoring and loving what He has authored.
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Nov. 18, 2005
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Herd Education and Youth Culture
I have been following and participating in a discussion on Spunky Homeschool's blog post - Our children as missionaries. This morning, my husband and I were discussing some things going on in the world, a person's reaction to his posting on And Such Were Some of You on Homeschoolblogger,
and the "coming out" of "gay" teens. I had one of those times when my
thoughts went "click." I entered my teens in the 1960's during the
"Sexual Revolution." I was raised in the government schools and
influenced very much by the "question your parents' value system" stuff
being promoted by my teachers and, of course, by my peer group.
I got thinking that the 1920's was another time that stands out as a
cultural shift that started in the "youth culture." It is called the
Roaring Twenties or the Flapper Era. It was a time that young people
challenged the values of their time. The girls started "bobbing" their
hair and wearing skimpy clothing (compared to the standard of society
then). Young people took up cigarette smoking, partying, and a
disrespect to their parents and the older generation. Women's
liberation made some real strides in that time period as well. Then in
my generation the "youth culture" started another revolution. It is
called the sexual revolution. Couples started "shacking up" without
marriage, illegitimate births increased, drugs and smoking pot were
promoted among the young. There was an even greater disrespect of
parents and the values of the older generation. The women's liberation
movement became very firmly entrenched in our society and the
"housewife" became something to look down upon. We have been
downward-spiraling as a society ever since.
Lets see - 1920's
to 1960's - forty years, right? Now it is forty years later again and
we are having an uprise in the "youth culture" again and, of course,
our whole society. This time it is an uprise in perversion. "Gay" teens
are "coming out" in record numbers. The courts are deciding that
parents don't have a say in their children's education (well, at least
one so far, but others will follow. You can count on that!) Bestiality,
child-adult sex, "gay" marriage and all sorts of perversions are being
pushed and legalized. Now the things that we were encouraged to embrace
by questioning our parents' values when I was in school, are the things
being taught to this generation of children. Now the schools outright
teach it, instead of encouraging children to question the values of the
older generation. They just are encouraged now to question the things
that even liberals found shocking when I was young.
Now, I
started thinking about the similarities and what might have helped make
them. I know I need to research more and if anyone has information that
would show a whole "youth culture" move in the 1800's, I would
appreciate it being brought to my attention. In my own research so far,
I have not seen that there was a rise of "youth culture" of any
significant proportion until the 1920's. The compulsary education
attendance laws were becoming more wide-spread by the turn of the
century in 1900, but it wasn't until 1918 that the 48th state adopted
compulsary education attendance laws. A wide-spread "youth culture" was
not really possible until that point. By the early 1900's, a
significant portion of the youth were herded into peer-groups where
they spent the majority of their time together. Other forces also had
an effect such as the rise of entertainment media, easier communication
and a world war. The combination brought about the first rise of "youth
culture" in our society in the 1920's. The youth of that day were
considered rebellious, as well as those of the 1960's and there are
those who see them in our day as rebellious, but our society, as a
whole, has accepted rebellion as being part of the youth culture.
I know that since "youth culture" has started having uprisings, that it
has happened pretty much continuously, but there have been major times
and they have seemed to be generational as far as running in a pattern
of forty years. Maybe that has to do with rebellion towards parents
that is encouraged. In the 1920's the youth had a liberal cultural
revolution so it would have gone to a conservative revolution in the
1940's. The same would be true of the 1960's again having a liberal
revolution and conservative in the 1980's. Now we are having a liberal
revolution again in this day. The one thing that is happening, though,
is that the immorality has progressed with each liberal revolution and
the only thing that has happened in the larger turns to conservatism
have just been maintaining the status quo, instead of a true revival
and repentance happening.
I am proposing that as long as
children are herded into an educational system on a large scale and
that parents are pursuing their own lives on a large scale because they
have someone to teach and "care for" their children, we will not see
any real change. Actually, I think that at this point and with the
global empasis on these things, that parents are going to shortly lose
the opportunity to have a real influence in their children's lives.
Since there are a greater amount of professing christians that believe
in sending their children to public school than those that choose to
home educate, we are not going to see any change, but only a greater
and greater control and influence over children. Unless those parents
really take the time to study the history of our modern institution of
education and see the real danger of herding children into peer groups,
they will not see what is coming. It is impossible to regenerate the
public schools or to change their agenda. It is long-running over
generations and has a principality behind it propelling it forward. The
only way to have any effect is to resist and to take up what we have
been entrusted with - the training of our children to know the mind and
heart of G-d. At least, they will hopefully not fall prey to the mass
deception and delusion that is taking over in our day.
My
oldest daughter, who is now 29 years old, went to a christian school
for two years. She has always struggled more with peer group dependancy
than any of her other sisters. I started home educating in 1985, a year
after it was enabled by Nebraska law. My Father had been convicting me
to do so since before my oldest was school age. What really caused me
to take it seriously was the scripture in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 -
"Hear,
O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD
thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in
thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be
as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the
posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
As I meditated
on this section of scripture, I could see no way to obey it other than
to have my children with me for the day. I have had my oldest in
private school and saw how much time that it took from her life and how
much less time I had to have input into it during those two years. Even
when my life fell apart at the breakup of my first marriage, I
continued to home educate as best I could as a single mother. I chose
to work part-time and trust my Father to provide and lived very
frugally to be able to live on what He provided. When I remarried, Rick
was not yet convinced about home education, so we enrolled my fourth
daughter and the only one still of school age at that time into middle
school. She did excellently that year and Rick got an education on
public education. He started becoming convinced and the next year we
were home educating again. When we moved to Missouri in early 2002, I
had a very young baby and we had been off schedule with the baby and
the move for a few months. When I tried to start up working with my
then 9 year old son again, he gave me some real problems and I told him
I was going to put him in school if he continued to do so. That was the
first time since I had started home educating in 1985, that I was the
one to initiate doing that. When Rick got home and heard how he had
acted, he declared we were going to put him in school. This was before
he even knew what I had said. We enrolled our son in school that week.
While we were doing so, the principal of the school was condescending
towards our having home educated our children. As we were given a tour
of the school, we saw their heroes posted on the walls - Whoopie
Goldberg, Eleanor Roosevelt, Che Guevera
and others. Then we were in the all-purpose room and saw the motto for
the school posted on the wall. I only remember this part of it, but it
was what really concerned us - "to prepare productive citizens of a
changing, global society." That was when Rick got a conviction. He said
our children were not being prepared to be part of a global society. He
decided that my son's days in school would be short and that it would
only be to finish out that school year. We now are both committed to
home education and Rick's time in a "Christ-centered and Spirit-led"
university has only served to strengthen his conviction about the
education of our children.
I was part of the movement from the
60's and if my Redeemer, Yeshua the Messiah hadn't rescued me, I would
be a strong proponant of all that was promoted during that time (if I
was even yet alive). He has given me a sacred trust in gifting me with
these children of mine. They are not to be squandered in herd education
or youth culture or sacrificed on the altar of duty to evangelize. My
young children still need to really have a relationship of their own
with their Creator yet. I am to give them a foundation so that when
they do have that relationship of their own, they will be sharp arrows
in His hand. I surely am not going to give them over to this strong
movement of this day that is going to result in the return of our
Messiah. From my experiences with public and private schooling, there
is not much time left in a day for parents to fulfill the command in
Deuteronomy 6, and if both parents work, I certainly don't know how
they will do it. For me, this is the only path to follow.
I
will respect the decisions of others as far as the educational choices
they make because I do not know G-d's will for their individual lives,
but I will also encourage them to study the history of education, to
study how herd education has effected societies in the past, to study
the scriptures and then to study the agendas of this day for our
children. In other words, I will encourage them to make an informed
decision and a prayerful decision. Personally, I believe that G-d is
calling us out of the systems of this world. We will not effectively
evangelize in the systems anyway, but only as we rub shoulders with our
neighbors and those He brings into our path. The time is very short
before our Messiah returns. We need to make sure that we are doing what
He wants us to do.
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Nov. 18, 2005
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My Testimony - Redemption (Part 2)
I graduated in the spring of 1973. I was a strong-willed, rebellious
young woman. I know now my parents were so tired of dealing with me,
and as the parent of more than one strong-willed child, I can
understand that. In the summer after I graduated, my dad hauled his
travel trailer out to our favorite nearby camping place and parked it
for 2 weeks for my friend, Carrie, and I to camp out. Looking back at
it, he probably knew he wasn't going to change my behavior and it, at
least, gave them a break from me.
Well, leaving two 18 year old
girls in a State Park, unsupervised, is not a good thing. At that time,
the legal drinking age was 18 and we took advantage of it. That
encourages immorality and that went on, too. G-d used that time,
though, to start something in my life. I met a young man who was
camping there. He was home on leave from the Navy. I was very attracted
to him and amazingly, he was to me. After he left to go back to his
base and I went home, we continued to keep in contact. He came home for
Labor Day weekend and he invited me to his grandparent's place on a
lake not too far from where I lived for a cookout. He mentioned going
to church and I invited myself along because I wanted to spend more
time with him. It was an independent Baptist church about 3 miles from
where I lived. I started going with him whenever he came home on leave.
Then I started going even when he wasn't home. I did not know that his
godly grandmother and mother were praying for me. I just knew that I
felt loved and accepted there.
I learned that I was a sinner.
I knew it in my heart because I was starting to feel guilt and shame
for my behavior. This was a church that had a salvation message every
Sunday. They sang "Just As I Am" most weeks, too, for the invitational.
That song really worked on me. The messages really worked on me. Now I
know that the Holy(Set-apart) Spirit was working in me, convicting me
and drawing me to my Savior Jesus(Yeshua). This went on all fall.
I
was also attending the local community college that fall, taking the
Electronics Technology course. I was one of 2 females in a class of
about 33. I know we were a distraction to the other students,
especially since mini-skirts were in at that time. One guy, a little
older student than the others, kept wanting me to go out with him. Even
though I was very interested in the guy in the Navy, I finally agreed
to go see a movie with him. He took me to a drive-in and it was horror
films. I have never liked horror films and still don't. He also wanted
more than to see the movie. It was not a very good date, I can tell
you, and he did not get what he wanted since I felt revolted by him and
the date.
In December, I remember taking a tract on "God's
Simple Plan of Salvation" home with me. I read it and was strongly
convicted. I fell to my knees and told G-d that I wanted His salvation,
that I believed in Jesus. After that, I started noticing a change.
Things that I was doing made me feel very uncomfortable and I didn't
want to do them anymore. I started wanting to read the Bible and pray.
It was the Christmas season and I realized that I knew the One who came
as that little baby. It was a very precious time for me that year. All
the christmas hymns took on a real significance to me. It felt like a
little secret down deep in me. By the end of December, my boyfriend
from the Navy rejected me. I no longer wanted to do the things with him
that we had been doing and was no fun any longer. Even though, G-d had
used him to get me to where I would learn of Him, he did not know Him
or was not walking with Him, and he dropped me. I heard many years
later that he had married a Catholic girl and had converted to Roman
Catholicism.
The first of the new year, I decided I wanted to be
baptized. The pastor had been speaking on it and I felt a tug to do it.
I approached him and he questioned me about why and I told the first
person of my decision I had made a few weeks previously. He arranged to
have a baptism the next week on a Sunday night. I told my family that I
was being baptized and asked them to come. When I was baptized, I gave
my first testimony publicly. I found out after the baptism that Jim's
grandmother and mother had been praying for me all fall. They were so
excited! Those things had a profound effect on me and my life changed
even more.
Right after I was baptized, a girl that was going
to that church offered to disciple me. She was a student at New Tribes
Bible Institute. What is really interesting is that I had worked for a
while at a restaurant near my home as a busgirl. My best friend, Pat,
took over the job when I got on the work-study program the second
semester of my Senior year at highschool. She told me they had hired
some girls from a Bible school and we would make fun and laugh together
about them as she told me how they were memorizing bible verses while
working. Now a young woman from that school was wanting to be my friend
and teach me the scriptures. I was hungry to learn so agreed to get
together to study the Bible. I met with Ellen every week.
I
also had found the "My Daily Bread" devotional at church and started
reading it. I would spend time every day reading the scripture and
praying. No one told me to do this. I just wanted to do it. I also
started learning the hymns that we were singing at church and singing
them. My family started giving me some trouble over the changes in my
life. I was quite outspoken about what I was learning and my newfound
faith. This was during the time that "The Chariots of the Gods" was
popular and there were several books out on it and shows on television.
We got in quite a few arguments over it. My mother told me it was just
another "kick" I was on and that I would get over it.
I was
really enjoying visiting New Tribes Bible Institute when I met with
Ellen for Bible study. They had some reading materials about missions
and their mission to the tribal peoples. I took them and started
reading them. As I did, I was drawn to doing that. I had lost my
interest in the classes at the community college and decided to drop
out mid-semester with the intention of going to New Tribes in the fall.
I wanted to get a job and save money to go. When I told my parents what
I wanted to do, they were upset. My father asked, "Why don't you go to
a good four-year school and be a minister?" They did not like the idea
of my being a missionary to a remote place in the world. It was also
during this time that my best friend was getting married and I was very
busy sewing her wedding dress and the bridesmaids' dresses , so I quit
the college.
Right after the wedding, I applied for jobs and
got one at a factory not too far from home. It was the midnight shift.
I worked there for about 3 nights. The women I worked with were rough
and course in their speech and I felt like I ought not to be there. I
got a call from a nursing home that I had also applied to and they
hired me. I found I was working with several people who believed in
Jesus and it was a good nursing home compared to the one I had worked
at on the work-study program in high school. It was actually owned by
christians. I was encouraged as I got to know some of my fellow-workers
and would look forward to work. The son of one of the nurses even went
to New Tribes.
When I told my friend, Ellen, about my decision
to go to bible school, she told me how she had shared about me in the
chapel time at school and had the whole school praying for me. No
wonder G-d worked in my heart to go that direction! He had over 200
people praying for me. I started saving my money and preparing to go to
New Tribes in the fall on 1974.
To be continued...
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Nov. 18, 2005
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Favorite Book of the Scriptures
How do you pick a favorite book of the Scriptures? And then what about
favorite passages? There are so many of those, too! Then there are
favorite verses. How do you decide which is your favorite?
I was
talking with a friend the other night and she quoted some from 2
Corinthians 4 and how it is being personal to her life right now and it
reminded me again of that favorite of mine. But then when I was reading
through all the comments on this subject on a friend's blogsite,
someone mentioned about reading Isaiah when going through an unwanted
divorce. My Father spoke so clearly to me through Isaiah 54 and gave me
healing and promises for my children and my life to keep me going on
when life was so difficult. I was going through a similar situation.
Isaiah is such a rich book! Then there is the book of Psalms. I have
spent the most time in that book. You can get through it every month if
you read 5 a day. You can either read 5 in a row or you can read 1, 31,
61, 91, 121 and on like that starting with the number for the day. You
save Psalm 119 for the 31st day in months that have 31 days. I usually
follow that format and have gone through cycles of reading Psalms that
way. I love Psalm 91 and think it is the Psalm for our day and how
crazy the world is getting. My Father also made a promise to me out of
it just before my life fell totally apart when my husband of over 19
years and father to our 5 children decided to live the "gay" life. He
told me the plague would not come near my tent and I saw the word
"AIDS." I had no idea what was coming when He told me that. I also love
Proverbs and have done them cycling every month, too, a chapter a day
for months at a time. Those 2 books have profoundly affected my life.
Proverbs gives us wisdom, which is "seeing life from G-d's point of
view and acting in harmony with Him." Psalms helps you to learn to be
real before G-d and men and to know how to pray and worship.
I
also love Genesis. The first five books of the scriptures, or the
Torah, are the foundation of the rest of the scripture and I would have
to say that Genesis is the footer for the foundation. Without an
understanding of Genesis and the rest of the Torah, we will not really
have an understanding of G-d or of ourselves in relation to Him. We
will not have a correct understanding of the rest of the scripture,
either. We will tend to syncretize our own beliefs into the things that
we learn in the later scriptures without understanding the foundation.
That is a major reason for what we see going on in the churches in our
culture. If we throw out the foundation, we will be shaken in the
storms of life. We also will think more highly of ourselves than we
ought to think. I love seeing my Messiah and the scarlet thread of His
blood all through the foundational books and on to the very end of the
whole of scripture. He is there throughout it all and the whole book is
about Him. We tend to forget that and think it is about us and how to
live this life, etc. It is about Him. It is His story.
Then we
get down to favorite verses. I love "You will keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on You."(Is 26:3) I love "That I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, and being made conformable to His death."(Phil 3:10). I
asked Yeshua one day to know Him and the power of His resurrection. He
said to me "the fellowship of my sufferings and being made conformable
to my death go with that. Do you still want that?" I said "yes" and my
whole life fell apart. But now I know Him in a way I never would have
if I hadn't asked and He hadn't asked and I hadn't said "yes." I would
not change my answer or those circumstances.
I have so many
other verses, passages, chapters, and books. It would take way too long
to say more. It is the most wonderful of books, but the One who is the
Living Torah, the Living Word is even more wonderful than His words. I
was recently thinking about if I did not have the scriptures available
to me, and even though I've memorized some scripture, what would I do?
I was reminded that since He has written His word on the tablet of my
heart, He is perfectly capable of giving me His words even if I don't
have the print ones to read. Since there are so many in this world that
aren't priveleged to have umpteen different translations in their
language and sometimes have not even one, it explains how they grow in
Him. They know the one who is the embodiment of all He has written. He
can still do His work in them and give them His words when they need
them.
Now, what is your favorite book, passage or verse of scripture and why?
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Oct. 27, 2005
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Mainline church decline caused by fertility rates, study shows
I know this
is another controversial issue, but it needs to be addressed. I know so
many that get all upset about abortion (and I hate it and oppose it,
too) but they do not look at the abortion mind-set that those who claim
to trust in Yeshua/Jesus have. This has been another of those
frog-in-the-water things where it has crept in gradually and subtlely
until those that claim to be "G-d's people" have the same mind-set as
the world and do the same things.
In Psalm 127:3-5 say:
"Behold, children are a heritage of the LORD. The fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won't be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate."
Then in Psalm 128 it says:
"Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways.
For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you.
Your wife will be as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of your house; your children like olive plants, around your table.
Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD.
May the LORD bless you out of Tziyon, and may you see the good of Yerushalayim all the days of your life.
Yes, may you see your children's children. Shalom be upon Yisra'el."
And then in Genesis the very first commandment given to mankind -
"God
created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and
female he created them. God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth,
and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds
of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
(Gen 1:27-28)
So
many that I know and have communicated with do not have this view of
children or fruitfulness anymore. They think of children as a burden
and something that gets in the way of their "life." They even ridicule
those of us who have chosen to have many "blessings." We get the
interminable questions like "Don't you know what causes that?" or "How
can you afford to have another one?" or "Not again!" for a few
examples, when we are happily sharing our being blessed with the advent
of another member of the family. I know, I've been through it several
times now. I can tell you that G-d's people need to repent of this view
and trust Him. He is the one who opens and closes wombs. If He has
closed it then pray and be content with His will if He says "no." If He
hasn't closed it, then accept the wonderful gifts He is giving and
raise some sharp arrows that He has put in your quiver.
Isn't it
about time that YHWH's people obey His command and allow Him to bless
them with children that will not disappoint when "they speak with their
enemies in the gate"? I can tell you from personal experience that He
will give you all the grace you need to raise those arrows and He will
also provide for them what they truly need. There is nothing we can
gain on this earth that is as much a treasure as our children.
Love and shalom,
Serena
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Oct. 27, 2005
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The Solid Rock
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My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus Name.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
by Edward Mote
I just read Vicki's most recent blogpost, Grace in the Desert, on Windows to My Soul and was reminded of the above hymn (one of my favorites). What she has to share is very key to a life of Shalom.
Love and shalom,
Serena
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