I am certain many people know this, but I was blown away when I first saw this and it has put my concordance to good use, looking up the meanings of names. So often in the Bible the names people are given also tell a story, and give another layer to the message. When Pastor Don shared this with us in Bible study it blew me away.

The generations from Adam to Noah

ADAM – man

SETH:-appointed

ENOSH – subject to death, to lament to mourn

CAINAN – sorrowful

MAHALALEL – from the presence of God

JARED – one comes down

ENOCH – dedicated

METHUSELAH -has sent his death

LAMECH – poor, made low

NOAH – rest or comfort

If you consider the meanings of the names above you see the salvation message.

Man, subject to death because of his sin nature, and from the presence of God one comes down who is dedicated, subject to death. He became poor and was made low, and his death provides rest and comfort and salvation for us.

Heather

Saw the most awesome movie last night at my woman’s Bible study. It was called John in Exile and it held us riveted to the end. I highly recommend it.

Heather

Have to share these that my sister-in-law sent me. I cracked up:

BIBLE STUDY!!!!

At last we did not get snowed out for the Tuesday Bible Study and Pastor Don taught it. Two blessings.

Topic, John 9, Jesus healing the blind man

Starting back at John 8:48

Pastor Don explained how the Samaritans came to be, how they were a remnant left in Jerusalem when the Jews were dispersed throughout the world. How they only had the Pentauch to work with and they formed their own way to worship God, picked their own mountain, etc. When the Israelites returned to their country, they saw that the Samaritans were not perfectly lined up with the practices and worship of God. This led to them being ostracized, that the Israelites had to divorce Samaritan wives, and they were looked down on by the Israelites as being lesser people. Yet Jesus also spoke with the Samaritans and pointed out that at times they showed more of God’s values than the Israelites did.

Pastor Don then went on to talk about something that really applied to what I was dealing with, and that is the question Why. How often when things happen in our lives we want to know Why, the reason, an explaination. And sometimes God seems very quiet in our lives. It is frustrating not to have the answer revealed when you want it, but sometimes God will not reveal an answer until you are ready to handle it. It may not be the season for you to know the answer. (I can see the truth in that, but boy is it hard to swallow, and I do still have unanswered questions).

In John 8:48-end of chapter, the Israelites are asking Jesus if he is greater than Abraham? and were questioning his statement about never tasting death if they keep His Word. They were asking the wrong questions. We often ask the wrong questions or untimely questions.

A history of Abraham followed, pointing out that when Abraham had to sacrifice Isaac, he gained a rhema picture of the Messiah, so acted in faith to know that God would provide the sacrifice. And God did both in Abraham’s time with the ram and in our time with Jesus.

He pointed out an interesting thing that I hadn’t thought about. Isaac was an adult when he was taken to the mountain for the sacrifice, he could have resisted Abraham who was rather old at the time, but he went willingly. Most probably every birthday celebration of Isaac the miracle of his birth was spoken of, and the story of Abraham’s hosting the angels was talked about. So Isaac had his faith fed often with the stories, and that faith feeding is so crucial for us. We must really remember the good that God has done for us, remember the miracles that have occurred in our lives, so that when we are faced with new situations, that we are strengthened by the faith experiences of our past.

John Chapter 9,

In this Jesus is asked who sinned, the blind man or his parents. And Jesus answered something so important for us to realize. That neither the man or his parents sinned.

Pastor Don had people with different versions of the Bible come up and read John 9:3 outloud, putting in the punctuation marks.  The NIV tends to make it seem like the man was born blind so that Jesus could show off his healing (the way most people read this verse). But the King James version and NKJ version show that the man and the parents had not sinned, BUT (very important word), that Jesus would now heal the man. That when Jesus is brought into the situation healing occurs.

Pastor Don said that with Word of Faith churches it is often assumed that if a person has a sickness, a problem, birth defect it is due to a lack of faith, a sin or something that the person did or didn’t do, but that is not always the case. Sometimes sickness, disease and death are just that, part of what happens on this earth without any other cause than satan in charge of the earth. When we blame the person or their faith for being sick, we abuse the teaching and make people feel guilty.

When bad things happen, God comes in to make it better.

Acts 10, wherever oppression, the work of the devil, is found, Jesus is come to rescue it.

John 9:6 Jesus using clay to put on the blind man’s eyes, showed two kinds of work on the sabbath, 1. healing the man’s eyes, and 2. making clay with dirt and spittal.

He was showing that even in his spit was healing, as the prophets foretold. And by using clay it reminds us that we were formed of the dust of the ground. The Pool of Siloam was far from where the Blind man was and he had to make his way to the pool to wash the clay off. This was an act of faith, to go and wash, so the man linked his faith with Jesus’ to obtain his healing.

By healing on the sabbath, Jesus was pointing out that he was Lord over the Sabbath (I AM),

We then read the questioning of the blind man by the scribes and Pharisees and how they excommunicated him. In those days that would have been a major stigma, for it meant that you would have had no way to sacrifice to God to remove your sins, you would not be allowed in the temple, etc. It would have been awful for the person. The scribes and Pharisees did not like the answers that this man gave. They chose not to see the miracle for what it was and condemned the blind man as being a sinner.

One other point that Pastor Don said was that when people do not agree with how you are thinking, often they label you a sinner. When the truth is that you are just not agreeing with them.

God is the God who can do something for you that no one else can do. This blind man was very teacheable and he was able to recognize and believe that Christ was the Messiah, and that was another level of healing.

These were the notes I took last night. Please know that if there are any errors it is my mistake, I am certain it is not Pastor Don’s teaching.

Regarding what I wrote yesterday, I just wanted to point out to people that if someone is having a hard time dealing with God in the way that another person has succeeded in accepting God, it may be because there are things that God still has to heal in the person. We are all works in process. And thank you for your care and concern. Perhaps I will continue on in that discussion, but was so excited to have a Bible study to share with you.

From Sunday morning until Thursday afternoon, I am taking my Girl Scout troop to Washington DC. It looks to be an exciting trip for the girls, and we plan to do lots of wonderful things, from the zoo to visiting the Holocaust Museum. The girls want to see IMAX and the Smithsonian, and Arlington Cemetary and Chinatown. Please pray for travelling mercies, good weather, and that the girls have a lot of fun. But if you do not hear from me in those days, do not worry.

Oh, my daughter Katherine turns 13 tomorrow.

Heather

I keep thinking about the concept of Father God, Abba. It seems that Christ always called God, Abba, except when he was on the cross and quoted the Psalm beginning My God, My God why have you forsaken me.

When it comes to God, sometimes it is easier for me to look at God as a distant authority figure, a discipliner. Even when I was fully into the occult, I had difficulty with mother goddess as well. That kind of intimacy with a father or a mother was so absent in my life that I feel very akward in dealing with God in those terms.

I am often envious of others who seem to have had the blessing of a loving home. Even my kids sometimes send me up the wall when they complain about how hard their lives are, they have no idea what a hard life is. Their idea of a hard life is having to do homework, maybe being refused the chance to go someplace they want, and being made accountable for their actions. They do not have to face what I faced every day growing up.

Haven’t written much about my past lately, and am feeling like a bit should be shared. Perhaps it will help others to see that it is not always disobedience or rebellion when a person has difficulty dealing with a loving God. My feeling is that God understands the hurts and pains, and makes allowances, at least I hope He does.

A bit of pre-history.

Both my parents were alcoholics. My father was a mean, angry drunk, and my mom would hide her alcohol, starting to drink from rising until sleeping. But she would be more likely to pass out than to rage.

I knew from day one that I was not wanted. My sister told me that my father pushed my mom down a flight of stairs when he found out that she was pregnant with me. She stayed out in the cold until he passed out and she could come into the house.

I think that early on I learned not to cry. My mom told me that my father, when I was six months old laid me across his lap and beat me because I cried when he yelled. I remember once holding my first son at six months and looking at him and trying hard to figure out how a person could beat someone so helpless as a baby.

From the time I could toddle I learned to be very wary in my house. My father would come home at all hours, raging. I had to learn hard how to smile at the right time, not to cough during TV shows, to say the right thing and not be noticed or make any noise whatsoever. And even being asleep at night was not safe. One night he took exception that I was sleeping and came in, dragged me out of bed by my hair, spun me around and slung me across the room. He had a handful of hair, and I was up against the opposite wall of the room.

Most of my life I was wearing long sleeved shirts to hide bruises. And when they said that if I didn’t do something they would kill me, I know they meant it, there were three attempts on my life before I was in school, one by a knife, one a bullet, and one being choked until I passed out.

At school I was the odd one out. People knew I was different, and that caused a lot of problems. Teachers noticed and made comments on report cards. I had to hide out at school, pretending to be like a kid, but the kids knew I was a fraud, so I was terribly alone, one of the two or three kids that were so different in a classroom. And kids can be brutal. Perhaps the one thing that I discipline my kids the most for is when they make deragatory comments about each other or are mean about another child. Then they get grounded big time.

My parents would also fight among themselves. I would often wake up and hear their arguments, the throwing of things, and shake in terror, wondering if I would somehow be dragged into the fight. And if so, would I know the right thing to say, whose side to take, etc. If my father threw something at me I learned not to duck. If he beat me I had to cry the right amount of tears, too few or too many would gain further beatings. I had to learn not to react or show my fear.

My sister and brother got out of the house before I was old enough to remember them. They would come to visit, but not stay long. I found out later that they too were abused but not to the extent that I was abused.

From early on my father could not keep his hands off of me, but the worst of the abuse was yet to come. He would paw my body, find bars of soap between my legs when I was in the bathtub, but I had no inkling what this was all leading up to. Anytime I was near him I was in terror, so I did not know that he was pretty much preparing me for future actions that would be awful. My mom knew what was going on and would give me advice like pretend you don’t see him calling you over to the sofa, etc. Advice I couldn’t take unless I wanted to risk my life. So not only did I have to handle awful touch, but I also had to handle guilt placed on me by her words that I couldn’t comply with.

She also would report to me in great detail the horrors she had to deal with in the marriage bed, and the whores my father slept around with. She was quite the detective, calling to see if she heard his voice in the background, finding match books, etc. And she laid even more trendils of terror by how she had me relate to him. Pretending to be my friend, telling me to drop to the ground, crawl to my room, and pretend to be asleep if my father came home at night. So the crawling and pretending got to be terror as well.

There were no grandparents around or any other relatives. And as typical of an abusive household, very little interaction with others. But the neighborhood kids thought my father was the greatest for he gave them candy when they ran to meet him. Only I knew the terror inside the house, and I really felt as if my life would be in danger if I spoke one word of what went on. But again, this is the ok stuff. What went on from the age of 8 on was way worse. And it was at the age of 8 I gave up on God.

Now if you just look at the above, what kind of image of father God would you get? You would have an authoritarian figure, a brute who would strike out in rage. One that you had to placate with works, do the right things, or be hurt. Mother would be no better, for often her intervention only served to make the father go into a rage. This is a God you would not want to attract the attention of, you would tiptoe around, and you would frantically seek the right words and phrases around. Legalism would be very comforting because you would know where you stood if you followed a massive set of rules. There would be no love, kindness, gentleness.

People talk about surrendering to God. As a child I had to surrender to what my parents wanted, but it was not for my best interests, it was to control, manipulate, and for their own self-gratification. So I have to struggle hard to see that God is not like them, that any surrender is for my joy and peace. The lessons of childhood are not always that easily undone.

Have to get off for now, but I am curious if this sort of helps explain why things can be difficult for one who grew up in abuse. I know it is not an excuse, and that I have to sort through these things and gain a truer picture of God, but sometimes it takes longer than people feel it ought to, because the damage is so deep.

Heather

Pondering put a note on my last blog entry that mirrors something I asked of Pastor Don recently, how can we be up one day and then down the next day in our Christian walk.

Oh how I wish it was all mountaintop experiences, but often I find myself in the valley facing depression and hurt and pain. Pastor Don pointed out that after a mountaintop experience, or a wonderful time of feeling the closeness of God, of feeling connected, of gaining a spiritual point, that often then we are plunged to the opposite extreme of the valley, where we feel that God is not all that close, that we lose the sense of the presence of God, feel that our spiritual walk is dry, etc.

Some thoughts on that. If we did not have darkness, we would not appreciate light so much. It is the opposites that give us a sense of the wonder. If all was the same, we would have no way to compare and it would be boring. Although sometimes I wish for a bit of boring.

A good part of our spiritual growth is also to learn to keep our focus on God whether we are on the mountain or in the valley. Even Jesus, after his baptism and the descent of the Holy Spirit was lead away into the wilderness for 40 days and had to face temptations from satan. Our goal is to hold onto Christ no matter what the external circumstances.

That said, I have to tell you that I find it very hard to hold onto these things in the midst of the valley experiences. It is only when I am around other Christians, and people who care that I can remember to hold onto the truth. That is why I think it is so vital to be a member of a church, to be around other people who can help you through the experiences you have. Without that, the valley can be very lonesome.

One Bible study, Pastor Don was talking about the 23rd Psalm, and the passage that says, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” He pointed out a few things about that line that I did not notice.

1. We walk through the valley – we do not camp there or live there. That is why it is called a spiritual walk, because we keep moving forward. Pressing on as Paul says.

2. It is not death, it is the shadow of death. Illusion, not reality. A shadow does not hurt a person, but a person’s imaginings regarding the shadow can hurt.

##

I am reading Matthew 26, and the point where Peter warms himself at the fire of the gentiles as he denies Christ, and it caused me to think about various mentionings of fire in the Bible, something I want to research soon.

When the tabernacle was dedicated, God provided the fire for the altar of sacrifice. The Israelites then kept that fire going, and used that fire for all future sacrifices. There was a rule of not using strange fire (fire not provided from God from that first sacrifice) when the Israelites made their sacrifices.  This fire was also used to light the incense in the Holy of Holies. So that the prayers (which is what incense symbolizes) were also made with sacrifice.

One of the Aaron’s sons (I think) used strange fire and ended up dying because of this. When we come to God we come totally in His energy and power. He provides the sacrifice, the fire, the altar – we do not bring anything of ourselves.

I want to do more research on fire, but the thought is that Peter went back to the fire of the Gentiles in the outer court when he denied Christ. He tried to warm himself there, and ended up weeping bitterly when he realized what he had done.

I know that occasionally I am led back to being around people who do what I used to do, and find that I cannot go back to those ways, that I have grown beyond them. I cannot go back to the old ways. Peter, too, ended up swearing as he sat around this fire (apparently in those days fishermen were known to swear) but one of the servants at the fire said that he talked like one of them (the followers of Jesus). Even though he tried to disguise his affiliation with Jesus by the old behavior of swearing, it did not come off as authentic. He had been changed by Jesus.

One thing that strikes my heart so much is how Jesus turned and looked at Peter. He did not give up on Peter and actively sought him out after the resurrection. Jesus does not give up on us, even when we blow it big time. He will still keep pursuing us, and I find that very comforting as I mess up a lot. Spend a lot of time in the valley and wish that I was a better worshipper of Christ.

I know that we can never really worship Christ the way He deserves worship for the sacrifice he did for us, but sometimes I feel like an bumbling, fumbling worshipper, one who has a hard time putting all my heart, soul and mind to worship. I feel inadequate, terribly inadequate. Then when I get lost in the valley or camp out I feel like I have let Christ down.

I told Pastor Don that one time, when I was praying. Often when I am driving back from an errand, I spend time in prayer, for I am alone and that is rare in our house. And I got the distinct impression of a baby’s sloppy kiss, of a hug or the offering of a mangled dandelion. And the idea that God appreciates even our fumbling gestures of worship, for we are his children, and just like we like our children’s signs of affection (sometimes rarer as they become teens) so God appreciates what we can do at the level we are at.

Sorry this is rambling. But I wanted to touch base before running out to do my millions of errands which includes buying a few Birthday presents. Thursday (St. Pat’s Day) my daughter turns 13, then I will have three teens. They grow up so fast.

Heather

Interesting teaching on Matthew 26, one that I hadn’t considered before but is oh so true sadly to say.

Matt 26:51-54

The last miracle Jesus performed was healing the ear cut off by Peter. Peter was defending Jesus, and took out his sword, chopping of the guard’s ear. Jesus healed the ear.

A few interesting points.

The sword is another name for the Word of God. How often do we as disciples of Christ pull out the Word of God and instead of it being a gift of love, it becomes a weapon in our hands that hurts others. We pull out verses from the sheath, and sling them at each other, defending our points of view.

When Jesus taught, the sword of his Word was of joy, spirit and life, people loved to listen to Him and were attracted by His teachings. Sometimes we use the Word to get our point across, and that is not always freeing to the receiver.

Also, we do not need to defend Jesus. He told Peter that he could have 12 legions at his calling (72,000 angels) and we know that one angel was enough to destroy 185,000 of Nebucadnezar’s soldiers.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the Merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” we need to give mercy and love to each other. Let God do the judging. Jesus said, that all how take the sword will perish by the sword, Matt 26:52. If we are using the Word of God, we also have to use it in the Spirit that God meant, the Spirit of love.

I had never thought of the Sword incident in the Garden of Gethesemene from this point of view, and it sure makes a lot of sense to me. I know I have been hurt by some of those who meant so well, but instead of helping me with God’s Word to free me from bondage, they put condemnation on me, ending up hurting and pushing me away from Christ. This was before I got saved, when people would push tons of scriptures at me, figuring that I would be battered down by the vast number of words they used.

I am learning (and I am still guilty of verbosity) that a well placed Word will do a lot more than hundreds of scriptures for most people. Now some will also respond to hundred’s of scriptures, so I guess we really have to be receptive to those we are speaking to.

Fortunately, I met Pastor Don, and his love and kindness, his well placed words that helped me sort out issues, showed me more of the Love of God and Christ, and allowed me to accept Christ into my life. I pray, that as I come across people, that, instead of turning them off, I pull them towards the Love of Christ.

Heather

After church my daughter decided she wanted to run the 2 mile Shamrock Run, so I took her to do that and cheered her on as she did it in 18 minutes. This is the first I have had to sit down by the computer. I am going to write the next bit about Noah.

What brought this to mind was the passage in Matthew 24-25 where Jesus points out that just in the days of Noah…

And I got to thinking about what it was like in the days of Noah and discovered this Bible study that I took notes about 3 years ago. What do you think, seems that Noah had a lot in common with us today.

Four things wrong in Noah’s Day (the last days)

1. POPULATION EXPLOSION At the time of Noah people lived a very long time, Adam was a contemporary of Methusalah and a contemporary of Noah, (Genesis 5 & 10). Remember they lived to be about 800-900 years. So in five genereations of children if each person had 4 kids and those 4 kids had 4 kids, 96 kids in 5 generations, 3,070 in 10 generations. In 20 generations 3 million 120 thousand, and 30 generations 3 billion 220 million.

From the time of Noah til 1867 it took the earth to reach the one billion mark in population., due to plagues, wars, health conditions and the reduced life span mentioned in Psalms.
1867-1935 population to reach 2 billion
1935-1965 population to reach 3 billion (way reduced amount of time)
1965-1995 populatoin to reach over 6 billion, and now that is doubled in 1998

Our population is growing exponentionally with about 250,000 added every 24 hours.

If you put rats into overcrowded cnditions, there is no maternal instinct, the mom rats did not take care of their babies and rats ate each other even though there was an adequate food supply.

If you look at our lack of regard for human life today you see similar patterns, we seem to have lost the sense of the value of human life.

2. SEXUAL ABBERATION In Noah’s day the sons of God and the daughters of men gave rise to giants, nephalim, fallen ones. The legendary figures of old. We don’t really know what they produced, but there are theories. One of which is that the fallen angels overstepped their boundaries with human creation. The end result was giants on the earth. Every culture on earth has stories of the flood and stories of giants.  That was why God picked Noah for he had pure roots.

From Genesis 3:15 Satan knew the promises of the redeemer to come from the seed of woman to crush the head of the serpent, so through demonic intervention satan tried to pollute mankind and prevent the Messiah from coming.

Today we have abberant behavior, porn, incest, teen pregnancy, homosexuality, divorce, and much that keeps us from the sanctity of marriage and sex as God conceived it.

3. EVIL IMAGINATIONS Images in the mind that go against the Word of God. Today we have the same with the images we receive from the media and the messages we hear from the false prophets, teachers and new age.

4. THE EARTH WAS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE, enough said about that, just pick up a newspaper.

One thing people talk about today is that Noah was a nice myth such as many of the other flood myths, etc. But if you think about it, Jesus talked about Noah. Jesus was the Word who was there at the beginning, and if He talks about a person from the past, then that person is real and existed. As did the flood.

Genesis 6:8, Noah  found grace in the eyes of God, in the midst of a corrupt world, but Noah wasn’t perfect, he just obeyed God. He is listed in God’s Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, for his faith.

If you count out the years, God gave grace to everybody on the earth. It took Noah over 100 years to build the Ark. As we saw, it was not a tiny ark, the neighbors had to notice and ask questions. Think about what you would think if your neighbor started building something of that magnitude. There was time for people to repent, to ask questions, to seek answers. So in a sense, they drowned in their own sin.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord in the same way as the Israelites did when they looked at the serpent on the cross and we look to the cross for salvation. The others did not look to God. They went around their daily activities, as Christ said, marrying, working, etc.

One last acronym, for tonight, then I will research my notes some more for  tomorrow, but this is great.

G-God’s
R-riches
A-at
C-Christ’s
E-expense.

Christ paid the price for sin so God can pour out riches towards us. The Law of Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. No other religion or philosophy offers Grace, all have works that you must do to earn salvation.

Given all that is going on in the world today, and how closely we parallel what occurred in the time of Noah, we really need to look to the Grace of God and to the cross.

Hope you had a great day. Just one bit of a comment, right now I could use some prayer, as there are a lot of hurting issues that are coming up from my past. When I spend tons of time in the Word it is sometimes to hide from the pain. And right now depression is rampant, memories and feelings are becoming linked, and I am scared of the feelings – what a better way to hide than behind studies. So please keep me in prayer.

And I am also getting a bit worried about my upcoming trip with my Girl Scout troop to Washington DC, hoping for good weather, travelling mercies, and all the dads who are left behind do ok with the remaining kids. A lot of responsibility. Also, I will try to remind you, but March 20 though the 24th is the dates of our trip, so if you don’t hear from me during those days, don’t worry.

Heather.

NOAH

Am still reading Mathew 24 and 25. There is so much in these verses. One thought that captured my attention is Noah, and there are a few things to share. This is a compilation of several Bible studies over a few years.

One of the fun things I did when I got to substitute teach a 6th grade Sunday School class was to take the kids outside and have them measure the dimensions of Noah’s Ark with a contractor’s tape measure. We could only measure the width, and 1/2 the length but the kids came away realizing that the tiny, rinky dink pictures of Noah’s ark with the Giraffe’s head sticking out does not represent the dimensions of the real thing. They came away realizing that this is true, not an allegory or a story, that it would be possible to put the animals in the ark. So tonight, since I can’t sleep, I am going to share the stats with you for fun, and then later on will talk a bit more about Noah and the flood.

The ark was 300 cubits by fifty cubits and 30 cubits high. If a cubit is 18 inches this is the dimensions of the ark: 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

There were three levels inside the ark.

If you multiply it out you come to about 1,518,750 square feet, (450 x 75 x 30 stories) which would be big enough to fit more than 337.5  boxcars inside if the boxcar is 50 x 9 x 10 feet in size.

At the time of Noah there were probably (and this is a guesstimate) 3,500 species of mammels, 8,600 bird species, and 5,500 reptiles, and 25,500 species worms. (This is gleaned from a sermon by Jon Courson who has tested out so often in my back checking that I am trusting this).

so if you multiply this out, you get 17,600×2 (of each -except for the ones where God asked for extra) you get 35,200 critters. The average size would be about the size of a sheep. at 35 sheep per boxcar, not unrealistic, you could do it with maybe 120 box cars, and have plenty of room for food, provision, and family and wife.

If you want to include dinosaurs, you could as well, for babies would also be able to fit. Who said all the animals had to be adults?

Later today, after sleep and church, I will continue. There is so much about Noah that is so exciting. But isn’t it awesome that God could provide so much for the critters and us?

I still laugh when I think of Bill Cosby’s skit about the Ark, “How long can you tread water.” But seriously, given the end times, how long can you go through the fire? I am so grateful that I found God in the midst of all the rebellion I had, and I only hope that there are others out there who find God too before it is too late. Some of the ones I subscribe to are lost in the quagmire of inclusiveness of religion and new age beliefs that it saddens me. I can only hope and pray that God opens up their eyes soon. To realize that he has prepared an ark of salvation for us through His son.

In case you are interested, inspite of the snow, the kids made it to the state finals, there were 44 different schools represented. Our school ranked 27th out of 44, and there were glitches and some damage that occurred to some of the projects in transport, so I was proud of how well they did inspite of the difficulties. So many were first year in this that they see this year as a learning experience to prepare them for next year. I am proud of them, and I know the hard work that they did to get this far.

hope you have a blessed Sunday.

Heather

Am so tired today. had to get up at 4:30 this morning to get my son to school for the semi-finals of science olympiad. Am hoping he does well with the events that he has scheduled.

My friend and I were discussing how Leviticus had so many instructions for the rites that the priests had to do when a leper was cured, but in the Old Testament the only one who was cured of leprosy was Naaman (2 Kings 5). We figured that these rituals were in place for when Jesus came on the scene and lepers were healed right and left. Often Jesus sent them to the priests to show their healings and receive the cleansing. In those days leprosy was a death, and a lonely one at that for the lepers could not be touched. It was awesome that Jesus would touch the lepers, and that may have been the first touch of kindness they received for years and years.

Leprosy was a kind of sin, because we know that sin leads to death. Regarding Naaman, a few ideas. (2 kings 5)

A slave of Naaman from Israel suggested that he go to visit Elisha. Elisha offers to let Naaman be healed so that he knows there is a prophet in Israel (v.8)

Naaman’s pride wanted Elisha to come to him to heal him because Naaman was a man of valor. Instead Elisha sent a messenger to tell him to wash seven times in the Jordan.

Naaman was going to refuse to do this because he wanted Elisha to come to him, he felt there were other rivers as good as the Jordan River, and so many other excuses.

(Heather’s notes) How often, when we receive the spiritual guidance we receive from God, from our elders or pastors do we reject it because it seems so simplistic, not what we expected. I am so guilty of putting God into a box, figuring that not only can I come to God for healing, but that I can tell him how to go about it. Sigh, and sometimes the answer is so simple, just dip seven times in the River Jordan, Pray a Psalm, ask for help, give the problem over. But my mind is such that I have to know all the whys, wherefores, and a well laid out map.

Fortunately for Naaman, his servant told him to do it, and Naaman gave it a chance and his flesh was restored like a child. And because of this, He knew that the God of Israel was the true God, for no other god on earth could cause such a healing.

The word Jordan means Judgement, and 7 is a number of completion.  This is such a picture of salvation.

1, Leprosy was a picture of sin – starts out as a tiny sore, and grows, and ends up eating away at the whole quality of a person’s life.

2. The message of hope comes, from the servant girl, the weak things.

3. The message is more important than the messenger. He did not have to see the messenger Elisha in order to hear the Word of God of Judgement (Jordan) and washing, he just had to obey the message.

4. He became like a little child. We today need cleansing from our sin by washing in the blood of the lamb. And often when we are in error we are informed of it by someone we would not ordinarily listen to. (Sometimes a child, or a person that is not one we recognize in authority) so we must be ever alert to listen for the message. As we are cleanses we too become like a child.

Elisha did not accept a gift for this healing because salvation is freely given,

V. 20 Gehazi (which means denier in Hebrew) was the servant of Elisha. He comes up to Naaman and says that really Elisha could use with a few gifts,  Gehazi is a kind of type of Judas Iscariot., and we as servants of God must watch out that we do not act like him, or fall under the spell of one like Gehazi. Gehazi wanted to suggest to Naaman that the gift of salvation, healing is not a free gift of God, but one that we through works (garments and silver) must earn.

1. Compassionless 2 Kings 4:27, he wanted to push Naaman’s servant away, and not bother his master with the needs of healing.

2. Powerless, when the widow’s dead son, he could not raise him from the dead using Elisha’s rod, so Elisha had to come to pray for the son.

3. Selfishness – firstfruits he wanted to keep the first fruits for himself instead of sharing with others.

4. Covetousness, he wanted the silver and garments that Elisha refused.

He was fooled because he thought that he could pull the wool over Elisha’s eyes by hiding the garments and money from Elisha in a secret place. (Heather’s note: how often do we think that if we sin in secret that somehow God doesn’t see us. He sees us, and we end up hurting ourselves and our walk.)

Then he tries to lie to Elisha instead of confessing his sin. and the ultimate repercussion of his behavior is that he and his family forever had the leprosy of Naaman’s forever.

No matter how good the teacher, no matter how much knowledge we have, it is so easy to stray from the path, to lose our focus and gain greed, or pride. No one is impervious to falling into sin.

I will try to write more, but I have a son pacing the floor hoping for a chance at the computer. Not to mention a vacuum cleaner that is calling my name.

Heather

Wanted to share that tomorrow, if you live on the East Coast and get TBN, at 11:30 in the morning – the Praise the Lord show for the Hudson River Valley, Pastor Don will be the host. You might be able to get a chance to hear a teaching live, instead of my notes. We are going to try and go as the kids are off from school.

I did get a chance to visit with Pastor Don last week and it was awesome to share some of what has been going on in my life with him. Lately it seems that people have been instituting conversations which lead me to be able to share some of my testimony with them, and it has been incredible to see just how far I have come in the two short years that I have been saved. What an awesome God we serve.

Pretty much I have been avoiding sharing some of what I have been dealing with lately on Xanga, but it wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t share that there are things that I am sorting through. The Bible studies that I have been doing have been speaking to me in some of these issues, so they are more than just nice studies, they are very convicting and lead to a lot of prayer about these issues.

I was telling Pastor Don that there are areas in my life that I am aware I need to work on to change, and I take steps to work on them, only to fall under again and lose the battle. He told me that that was good because when you are really ready to make a change is when satan steps in to try and interfere. When the interference is the most difficult, that is when you are really ready to tackle the issue. Well right now I am running through tons of interference, so I suppose a lot of changes are in order. How do you handle the interferences that come with changes that need to be made?

I have been posed to run for the past few weeks, to run away from everything, and have been resisting running from God, but it has been hard. I wish I could get it through my hard head that God is safe, and not to be feared, that He really does want me in His kingdom, etc. etc. Or as  Seinfeld says, “Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.” I know that the Word speaks the truth, but He has a lot of damage to repair before I can fully accept it.

And lately have been avoiding sleep and dreams. sigh.

One cool thing is that we finished the third part of the Kay Arthur Revelation study in my ladies’ Bible Study, and the last assignment was soooo awesome. We made a time line of some of the prophesies about the end times, We made a timeline of Revelation, Ezekiel, Matthew 24, Daniel 9, 11, 12, etc. and when you put the events on time lines they line up perfectly. I think that one of the most wonderful things about the Word of God is how consistent it is.

Heather