Thanks for your concern. We got power back after a few hours, and cable too. The tree that blew over in the wind had, last summer, been struck by lightning. I think nature had it out for that poor tree. Fortunately all that is left now is a few wood chips and no one got hurt.

I was reviewing notes from Pastor Don’s Bible study and a Jon Courson Bible study that I listened to off the internet, I think Jon Courson’s Bible studies are still up and running if you are interested. Both men know the Bible so well that between the two, the Word of God springs to life. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am in Matthew in my morning Bible studying (what I need to do before kids wake up if I want to wake them up with a smile on my face), Bible study and caffine.

I keep tons of notes both in my Bible and in notebooks, it kind of helps me keep focused when I study and I tend to remember things better. Problem is, one day I have to catalogue my notebooks.

This is regarding Matthew 23. Matthew 22 was the scribes and Pharisees inspecting Jesus to see if he was pure (sort of like they inspected the lamb before the passover sacrifice). Now Matthew 23 is Jesus inspecting the inspectors as it were.

Jesus’s public ministry sermon began with the Beatitudes Matt. 5 where Jesus spoke 8 blessings on the crowd. His last sermon before the cross was this one where he pronounced eight woes on the crowd. Jon Courson states that the woes and the blessings correspond, as follows.

1st Beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
1st Woe: Matt. 23:13 Woe to the scribes and Pharisees (S&P) who shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men

2nd Beatitude: Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted
2nd Woe: Matt: 23:14 Devour widows houses, for a pretense of long prayers, but not provide for ease and comfort of the widows.

3rd Beatitude: Meek – who will inherit the earth
3rd Woe:  v:1 5 S&P are hypocrites, who by their zealousness try to convert others and make them even worse than themselves. Today we see that in legalism which lays extra burdens on people.

4th Beatitude: Hunger and thirst for righteousness
4th Woe. V. 16 S&P are blind guides who swear on the gold of the temple, not on the temple. They used to believe that if you took an oath by the temple it was ok to break it, but it was more binding to take an oath on the gold of the temple. So there were degrees of what compromises a promise – but that is not righteousness.

5th Beatitude: Merciful receive mercy
5th Woe: V.23 tithe on the little, but not on the weightier issues of justice, mercy and faith. The S&P’s would tithe to the grain of mustard seed, but forgot that God cared more about mercy than he did about legalistic tithing. But yet, Jesus also said that you should also tithe, but keep the important issues as well.

6th Beatitude: pure in heart, they shall see God.
6th Woe: v. 25 the S&P are clean on the outside, but full of extortaion and self indulgence. They cleaned the outside of the dish, but were blind, for first they had to clean the inside so that then the outside would be clean also.

7th. Beatitude:  peacemakers, children of God.
7th Woe: v.27: full of deadmens’ bones. Appear righteous outwardly, but would plot to murder in secret. (for example their planning Jesus’ death)

8th Beatitude: when men revile and persecute you and say evil against you falsely as they did to the prophets
8th Woe. Jesus says that they say that if they lived in the days of the prophets they would not have taken the prophet’s blood. Yet they would take the blood of the Messiah, and the disciples, and followers of Christ. They would end up doing this so that the sins of the father’s they would repeat.

I have read these two passages so many times and never made this analogy before, but it blew me away. I am in awe of how much depth there is in the Bible, what an awesome book.

Heather

Well, we were off of power for awhile. My kids got to go home at 10 this morning after only two hours of school. We had snow, massive wind and a tree fell in our road. It took time to get back cable, electricity, etc. My husband took this picture, we never saw a tree fall like this before.

by the way, this is the road, that the tree is on.

Heather

Old Bible study notes:

Matthew 21: 12-16 – my house shall be a house of prayer

1. We are to realize that we are the Temple of God. 1 Cor. 6. We need to make our house (our body) a temple of prayer. Many of us do not believe that prayer works, for if we really believed that prayer worked, we would be praying lots more than we do. Prayer is the fountainhead from which all blessings flow.

2. Purity – Jesus drove out the moneychangers from the Temple. Before we can really feel a release in prayer,  we must drive out our known impurities in our lives, our known rebellion. That involves confessing our sins to God and asking His forgiveness.

3. The result of prayer is power. V. 14. Jesus healed the blind and lame, you release power through prayer.

4. Result of prayer is praise, V15. The priests were asking by what authority Christ did that, the children were praising and God pointed out that out of the mouth of children praise is perfected.

The flow is Purity (confessing sins) leads to a house of prayer, leads to power being released, leads to praise of God.

Some will say that their prayer lives are shallow, how can one develop a prayer life.

1. Desire to pray – comes from reading the scriptures, hearing testimony and hearing messages about prayer which develops the desire.

2. Discipline. The price of not praying is not being able to pray. It is much like learning how to jog, when you first start you don’t jog long, but if you consistently jog, you begin to build up endurance. With prayer, you begin to pray, and make sure you pray daily. Some days you will not feel like praying, but pray anyway. As you pray more and more you will discover a delight in prayer. But that delight may not come day one, it comes over consistent prayer.

3. Once you have prayed consistently, you will find an increased desire to pray and your prayers will change and grow.

Now God is sovereign, and He deals with us where we are. Prayer and praise is not a formula. God can answer a feeble prayer of a non-believer, as we grow in God, God may stretch our faith by causing us to need more discipline. God will help to develop our temples to be more what He wants in our lives for our own good. The above is not a formula, for God deals with us individually.

They are now talking about 8-12 inches of snow today. I sent my kids out to the bus in balmy weather with sprinkles, now it is blizzarding, sigh. Is there really a season called spring? My faith is shaky on spring these days.

Heather

Today I have been reading in Matthew 21 about the Triumphal Entry of Jesus.

Jesus came to Jerusalem in humility in his first coming, riding on a colt, but in his second coming He will be riding a White Horse with His army of Saints.

How often in our lives does God give us a job that is one of humility first, before He entrusts us with something requiring authority. If we cannot be faithful in the little, can we be faithful in the Big.

Now a colt, that has never been ridden before is a difficult ride to control. It takes great authority to be able to ride with decorum a wild horse.

The crowds were shouting Hosanna which means save now. They had their preconceived notions of what the Messiah would do, and when the Messiah did not perform to their expectations, then they turned against Him.

I think that is much the same way that we turn against God at times when He doesn’t meet our expectations. I am so guilty of that, that I have to often apologize to God.

One of my favorite verses is 16 when Jesus answers the indignant priests by saying, “out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise.”

Jesus knew that any praise of the adults was political and had hidden agendas. Children do not have agendas, they either like or don’t like someone. Jesus must have been awesome to attract kids the way he did, so much so that the disciples wanted the parents to have the kids leave Him alone. Their worship and words were not calculated.

The withered fig tree. Fig trees were a representation of the Nation Israel. This was a lone fig tree, (Mark) and that is a good indication that we must fellowship with other believers or we will not produce fruit. It takes cross pollination to produce fruit, if we are isolated, we do not grow spiritually. And our fruit will be barren. Jesus saw a tree that to outward appearances should have had fruit (just like the rabbis and priests should have had spiritual fruit), and when he did not find fruit, in Mark he says let no man eat from thee. He wanted people to eat from fruit producing trees and the leaders of the Israelites were not giving their people the spiritual fruit that Jesus offered.

How telling that, when Jesus was asked by what authority he did what he did, that he answered his questioners by asking a question which they did not answer. Then Jesus said that He would not answer their questions. Yet he did in parable form.

The first parable was about obedience to the father, and one son said he wasn’t going to do what the father asked, and did it anyway, the other son said he would do what the father asked and did not do so. It was illustrative of how Jesus felt that sinners and publicans had a bigger chance in the kingdom than the scribes and pharisees who gave lip-service to the law, but not obedience from the heart.

Then in the wicked vinedressers, Jesus shows that He will be killed by the vinedressers (priests and scribes of the kingdom) for Jesus was a threat to their authority in the field. How little did they realize that they wouldn’t even be in the field if it wasn’t for Jesus and God. And the prophesy so awful for the Israelites and so good for us, V. 43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” So we ended up with the time of the Gentiles, but Revelation shows that soon the remnant will also be regrafted into the kingdom of God and we will be one.

Between my daily readings and the Bible studies I keep being blown away at the amount of prophesy in the Bible, and how so much is coming true in this day and age, and how much the Bible holds together as a whole.

Have you ever read Flatland? It is about a world that is two dimensional and the residents, the line, circle, triangle, etc. contemplate the possible existence of the third dimension, but their perception of this dimension is only at a point of contact. For me the Bible is like a point of contact to something that is so deep and wide and long and tall that we can never fully appreciate all that it contains. Each time I read a chapter or verse, there is so much, that you can never tire of the study, and I know that the most learned scholar (which I am not) is barely scratching the surface. How awesome a book the living Word of God is.

Will try to get to the Friday Bible study CD tomorrow, survived the delivery of 707 cases of Girl Scout cookies, and getting them distributed to the troops. Am contemplating a nice warm shower for sore muscles.

Heather

So many people recommended Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller that I went out and got that book, and a few others that have been suggested. Blue Like Jazz is awesome! Thank you to Nomi Pie and the others who told me about it.

Please continue to recommend good books that move your spirits, because finally a Barnes and Noble bookstore has opened within a half an hour from our house, and now I am looking to add to my books to read pile. Any good suggestions are welcome!!!!

Well, a few quotes from Blue Like Jazz that kind of touched me. Haven’t read far, so don’t panic.

P. 4  Miller talks abot the few times he saw his father, and how his father had left his mother, so in talking about God, Miller says, “Today I wonder why it is God refers to Himself as ‘Father’ at all. This, to me, in light of the earthly representation of the role, seems a marketing mistake. Why would God want to call Himself Father when so many fathers abandon their children?
      As a  child, the title Father God offered an ambiguous haze with which to interact. I understood what a father did as well as I understood the task of a shephard. All the vocabulary about God seemed to come from ancient history, before video games, Palm Pilots, and the Internet.
     If you would have asked me, I suppose I would have told you there was a God, but I could not have formulated a specific definiton based on my personal experience. Perhaps it was because my Sunday school classes did much to help us memorize commandments and little to teach us who God was and how to relate to Him, or perhaps it was because they did and I wasn’t listening. Nevertheless, my impersonal God served me fine as I had no need of the real thing.”

Heather’s comments: Oh can I relate to this. I could never relate to God as Father as a kid, because the father I had was an abusive, drunken, evil person who hurt me way more than anything and who did not love me. So father was someone to hide from, to run from, and to not draw attention to yourself from. Ask me a few years ago and I too would have said that it was a marketing mistake. I have changed now, but it has been a slow process. And God the father at one time was as puzzling as why Dorothy clicked her red shoes together to go home from the land of OZ. As a kid I would have stayed.

A great book, A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm helped me to understand the role of shepherd, and my experience as a mom as well as my husband’s abilities as a father, as well as Pastor Don’s gentleness is showing me a bit more of what an earthly father/mother is like. I can’t say that I really could see myself coming boldly to God as a child, there is still much to be cleaned off from me, but I can say that the idea of Father God is becoming as tantilizing as a carrot on a stick. Drawing me closer to look. Kind of like when the apes reach out to touch the monolith in 2001 a Space Oddesy. I am sort of seeking, but ready to flee at the least bit of fright.

Have you found that Sunday School and church has made it hard to learn how to relate to God? I think some do. Fortunately our church is not one of those, as the emphasis is on a personal relationship with God, not ritual, or tradition. Just Bible teaching and spending time in prayer and meditation is emphasized.

I think that for me the notion of Bible study has grown to be so consuming. As I have read the Bible and see the depth in the well-chosen words, and the connections between the passages, it makes it much easier to see a God who is in control, who knows what is to happen, and has things all worked out in such a way to make the end right. God, who forgives our errors and gives second chances, and lets us help in this work is awesome. My only pet peeve, is that sometimes His timetable from the standpoint of eternity drags a lot in the midst of our lives. When I want things now, and find out that he will do it in his own time, and that could be years down the road, is a bit tough to stomach at times.

Miller then talks about when he first began to sin, and on page five a tiny quote struck home, “I sinned only in bits at first—small lies, little inconsistencies to teachers about homework and that sort of thing. I learned the craft well, never looking my teacher in the eye, always speaking quickly, from the diaphragm, never feeble about the business of deception.”

Heather’s notes: Oh do I remember small lies. As a child I learned to lie much earlier than Miller’s age of 10, I had to lie to survive. I had to smile and say things were ok when they weren’t , I had to put on a happy face and hide terror. I had to lie to save myself from beatings. Tonight, driving to pick my daughter up, I had a heart to heart talk with God. I was apologizing to Him about how I feel that I fail in worship, the trust of Him as a little child, and that I fall so short in my relationship with Him that I wonder why He even bothers with me. I talked with Him regarding the empty spot inside of the little child that was never fulfilled.

When I was a child, teachers would write that I acted like a 52 year old adult on my report card (that was good for a beating) when it came home on a kindergarten reportcard. So I had to pretend to be a child.

I asked God if maybe because I could never really come to Him as a child, because I was old beyond my years, if that was why He didn’t answer my prayers back then. And I have asked Him to try and help me somehow find that child-like part of myself, somehow I think that needs to be satisfied.

There was a lot more, a lot of fodder to sort out, and I am looking forward to speaking with my pastor regarding this. But I often wonder if, because as a child, what was innocent was stolen at such an early year, if maybe it has polluted my relationship with God.

Of course, then my thoughts went to the teachings I have been sorting through about how we limit God by our perception of what we think He can do or not do, and how we cannot put God in a box, so maybe He has a way of restoring these things in a way that I can’t even conceive of. Of course I sure hope if He is going to restore them that He does it more on my timetable than on His.

Oh, how I struggle against the yoke.

Well it was a bitter sweet conversations with God, punctuated with tears that terrify me, as for me tears represent danger. Guess it is good that I am honest to God in tears, but frankly I wish I were more in control of my emotions. Can we get too emotional for God?

Sorry for the rambling, but then my talk was rambling to God. Hopefully he can sort the wheat from the chaff in my meandering conversation with Him.

Well, again, thanks for the recommendation of this book. Think of me tomorrow as I freeze in the morning. I am the cookie chairperson for our Girl Scout council and the truck is delivering cookies tomorrow, and I get to spend about three hours outside counting boxes and distributing them to the different Girl Scout troops. So, if you don’t hear from me until later in the day, that is why. Praying it doesn’t snow or rain.

Have a great night.

Heather

Well, I enjoyed the concert, and was able to catch the last 40 minutes or so of Bible study. My husband has put it on a CD for me, and I will listen to the rest and give a recap. 

Right now am reading Andrew Murray on Prayer. It is not a book to hurry through, but to savor. I also have to get busy with my Kay Arthur studies as I have homework to do before Wednesday.

Chapter two of the book in Murray’s  Abide in Christ

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This book is really hitting me where I need it the most. I am such a wayward soul in that I try hard to be self-sufficient and in control. Any yoke put on me I would probably struggle against. These thoughts are a compilation of previous Bible study notes and Andrew Murry.

From a Bible study, yokes, ox yokes were carved from wood, and Jesus is the master carpenter, so he would have made many yokes in his day. The yokes had to be very smooth and carefully made, fitted to the animal. For in pulling heavy loads the yokes would chafe the animal if they were not correctly made for the animal.

So when Jesus has us yoked to him, his yoke would be carefully made to fit us, our strengths and weaknesses, where we are. Since He knows us intimately they would fit perfectly. Because Jesus is yoked with us, he would be doing the most of the work and we would be following along. If we try to pull against the yokes we hurt ourselves.

Now I pull against the yokes a lot, and then find myself blaming God for the hurts I receive, and when I finally settle down and look at it, I realize that it is me who caused the hurt by going my own way. When will I ever learn that one?

Andrew Murray says that in this passage the promise of rest was repeated twice. Abiding rest is only found in abiding nearness to Christ.

Andrew Murray continues and says that there are two separate promises in this verse. the first one is when we first get salvation, we find rest for our soul in the release and peace that comes from forgiveness of sins. The second rest comes “But we know that all that God bestows needs time to become fully our own; it must be held fast and appropriated and assimilated into our innermost being  without this not even Christ’s giving can make it our very own, in full experience and enjoyment.”

Basically we still have our fleshly bodies, and it takes time to learn how to obey and have the discipline to follow Christ in this way.

I was talking with my pastor one day expressing a few fears. One of which is how painful I perceived some of the changes would be, that perhaps they would be more than I could handle. And he pointed out to me how much Christ had already cleaned off of me, and that Christ did not overwhelm me.

For me, I have a fear of being overwhelmed and dominated. It kind of comes from the past where there was no free will, and a lot of hurt. So when I hear of anyone being in charge of my life, my mind instantly runs to the fears of being led around at the whim of a powerful person, that it will end up hurting me, and that it is not in my best interests.

Now I know that God is not like my earthly authority figures, and that his heart is to help me to be a good living stone in the Kingdom of God, and that in order to fit in right, there must be adjustments made. What I keep forgetting is that it is not me being yoked to a wagon and forced forward, but that Christ is yoked with me, and that we are walking together. It is a hard thing for me to get through my thick skull.

Also Pastor Don pointed out that Christ will never force His will on me, but will be there the moment I ask for His help. I am trying to learn to ask for his help more and over lots more things. Haven’t gotten to the point of asking Him in every situation, but I suspect that as I get to this point there will be less and less hurtful things happening due to mistakes I make.

Page 23 in Murray says, “But, alas, I hear someone say, it is just this abiding in Jesus, always bearing His yoke, to learn of Him, that is so difficult, and the very effort to attain to this often disturbs the rest even more than sin or the world. What a mistake to speak thus, and yet how often the words are heard!… ..The soul has but to yield itself to Him, to be still and rest in the confidence that His love has undertaken, and that His faithfulness will perform, the work of keeping it safe in the shelter of His arms.”

I often have a works mentality when it comes to dealing with God and Jesus, figuring that I have to be good enough, perfect enough, doing the exact right thing, etc. and that only then would God love me. I keep being reminded by Pastor Don that God loved me while I was still a sinner, so why would he love me less now with the new being that I am, even if not perfect.

I also know that no one is perfect and that we all fall short, but somehow I have to unlearn that I have to do things to be loved. That to me Agape love is like speaking a foreign language, something that just doesn’t compute.

Murray put it perfectly on p. 24, “It is not the yoke, but resistance to the yoke, that causes the difficulty; the wholehearted surrender to Jesus, as at once our Master and our Keeper, finds and secures the rest.”

My walk with God seems to be tiny step forward and then a lot of steps back as I experiment with this surrender to Christ. I want surrender so much I can almost taste it, but once I surrender, the fear sets in and I back off.

But the other day, I was sharing my testimony with some women and it dawned on me just how far I have come since I have accepted Christ. And perhaps it is happening gradually and gently, and one day I will look around and be amazed at all these mental gymnastics that I am putting myself through.

I will try to listen to the CD my husband cut and then share the Friday Bible study with you as soon as possible. Have a lot to do and organize over today and tomorrow though, as I am the area’s cooking chairperson, and Girl Scout cookies are to be delivered on Monday, so a lot of paperwork to be done.

Hope you have a good weekend, at least it isn’t snowing today.

Heather

My husband will record Friday Bible study today and as soon as I can listen to it, I will share with you. Today my son is playing Jazz at the Mall at the same time of Bible study. This proud mom will be there to hear him, hard to pass up a chance to see him in suit and tie and coat, instead of short sleeved teeshirts and jeans and to watch him perform. He works so hard in his studies. His instrument is a Tenor Sax.

Heather

Was talking with Pastor Don today, and found out that they are starting to put videos on the internet, and they are beginning to add to our site. I shared our church site, but there is another site that has two of Pastor Don’s sermons on streaming video, with more to be added in the future. Here is the site for you, the sermons are about stress, something that is very relevent to me.

http://www.ihnministries.org/IHN_Teaching.htm

Hope you enjoy, and I would keep checking back because work is at foot to make this site awesome.

Heather

Kids have their first full day of school this week!!!!!!

Morning conversation among grumpy kids. My daughter is taking home and careers, and is in the cooking section of the subject. She was complaining about awful tasting cupcakes the teacher gave the kids,

Ed, “You think the cupcakes are bad, wait until you have to make the spinach balls.”

Mom, “I think the point of that was healthy snacks.”

Ed, “It’s not a healthy snack if you can’t keep it down.”

Who can argue with that. Brings back memories of my old home and careers days. sigh. I will never forget a cheese class. Our class was the last of the day and the teacher had run out of crackers. All we had was a cup of water and we HAD to taste about 15 different cheeses, and for kids whose only cheeses were Velveta and American cheese, water and goats milk cheese, bree, etc. was pretty awful.

Bible study.

Matthew 17: 24-27 this is the taxes.

Matthew is the only one who records this miracle, not surprising because he was a tax collector.

This is the only miracle with one fish. All other fish miracles involved lots of fish. The feeding of the multitudes has sometimes been dumbed down by commentators as one little boy’s generosity caused others to share and hence the miracle. Why is it that people cannot believe the Word of God and seek natural ways to explain miracles? But with one fish it is impossible to explain away the coin with having it scraped up by a net or something, as the fish was caught by a hook.

Peter was a fisherman. Because he was a professional fisherman, he normally would have gone out with nets and boats to catch fish, so it must have seemed peculiar to others to see him walking with a rod and hook to catch fish.

Jesus performed many miracles for Peter’s benefit.

He healed Peter’s mother in law.
The fish with the coin
Drop your nets and they were filled Luke 5 (Peter had rowed out for Jesus, then Jesus instructed him to drop  his nets in the deep. Fish are usually found in the shallows.
Walk on water
In Garden, Jesus healed ear of soldier that Peter chopped off
Peter’s denial of Jesus forgiven
Rescued Peter from Jail

This is the only miracle that Jesus ever did regarding money (which makes all the TV evangalists and their seed money sermons and prosperity sermons seem rather stretching things -who says abundance has to be money, could it not be abundant joy, peace and gifts of the spirit?)

This is the only miracle that Jesus did that sort of  benefited himself, but Jesus did it really for Peter.

Peter was the sort of friendly giant of a disciple with a big mouth. In this miracle Peter is asked if Jesus pays temple taxes. Peter says, “Yes” which wasn’t the case. Because when Peter comes back to Jesus, Jesus points out that the Son does not pay tribute to the King. Then Jesus tells Peter to fish. Peter obeyed Jesus, but probably (Heather’s thought) felt a bit foolish walking through town with a rod and hook. And caught enough money to pay the tax for Jesus and Peter.

It is interesting how Jesus refused to be drawn to perform miracles for himself. In the temptation after the 40 days fast, satan tried to tempt Jesus to make bread from stones (at a time when Jesus in his human form was very hungry), tried to get Jesus to have God catch him up if he jumped from a height. Jesus did not ask for this for himself. His focus was others.

Just a few thoughts for today.

Heather

My husband graduated college as an economist, and now works with computers. Someone sent him this funny joke about what economists do, you may enjoy it. (hint when you get to second screen move mouse)

http://www.mikeholt.com/mojonewsarchive/All-HTML/HTML/Too-Much-Time-on-your-Hands~20040521.php

Heather