gift of geese

Kevin and I drove home from Williston today and as I watched a V of geese fly by I told him I'm really enjoying birds lately. Just then we all looked down the road and there was a cloud of birds on each side of the road! It was amazing. I've never seen so many birds flying together. Other cars had stopped to look, too, it was that cool. We opened the windows to hear them honking.

I told Kevin God is so funny like that. It's like when Kev goes out and comes back with a hot chai tea for me just because! Good one, God. I said that I liked the V so He gave me two clouds of birds to enjoy - just because.

I love Halloween!

...now that I know more about it!

Last year I read the book, Redeeming Halloween, with the MOPS book club. Typically, we just celebrate Hannie's birthday on the 30th - Happy 6th Birthday to Hannie - and that's our biggest celebration of October. Plus we love our trip(s) to the pumpkin patch! Now that the kids are older we take part in the school's activity, Funanza, or whatever Harvest party the churches have going on. While we enjoy those fun things, we also try to avoid all the icky things on TV and in the stores and all over the place!!!

There are icky things to avoid but there are also so many more things for us as Christians to be celebrating.

Did you know that it was set aside as a "Christian festival" to be celebrated along with others marked on the calender like Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost! Way back in 610 AD it was marked on the calender on May 13th but a hundered years later it was moved to November 1st to counteract a pagan festival that was held then. (Christmas found it's place on the calender for the same type of reason!)

Origionally, there were several days marked out for individual Christian martyers and then the church combined it to one day of rememberance and called it "All Saints Day". To quote the book, "As those who believe in salvation through Christ alone, we owe a debt of honor to the faithfulness of those who stood firm in the face of death and established the church." Who knows where we'd be without the early Christians who stood firm for Christ in the face of death!

Halloween is "a meaningful time for the church to remember the early martyers."

October 31st, the party before the party, is also a time to, "Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith." (Hebrews 13)

So today at supper time our family talked about Stephen, the first martyer mentioned in Acts 7. Then we talked about Daniel in the lion's Den and how he stood firm for the Lord. After talking about a martyer and a plain ol' Bible hero, we talked about people we know right now who live out their faith... Pastor Chris, Evan (Benjamin's school friend), missionaries we know...

Halloween is a good time to remember and honor the Christians years ago who stood firm in their faith and to encourage fellow believers and to pray for missionaries around the world!

What a great holiday!


--Another great book that's for kids is The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs... how just like a pumpkin, we grow, are picked, cleaned, and then shine with the light of Christ.

--Also... a site for today's martyrs: http://www.persecution.com/

God is God

Advocate,
Alpha and Omega,
Author and Finisher,
Awesome,
Beautiful,
Bread of Life,
Chief Cornerstone,
Chief Shepherd,
Compassionate,
Counselor,
Consuming Fire,
Creator,
Dayspring,
Delieverer,
Ever Present Help,
Faithful,
Father,
Friend,
Forgiver,
Governor,
Guide,
Head of the Church,
Holy One,
Hope,
Horn of Salvation,
I AM,
Immanuel (God with us),
Jesus,
Judah,
Just,
Judge,
Kind,
King of Kings,
Lamb of God,
Light of the World,
Lion,
Living Water,
Lord God Almighty,
Lord Jesus Christ,
Lord of All,
Love,
Maker,
Messiah,
Merciful,
Mighty God,
Morning Star,
Patient,
Perfect,
Prince of Life,
Prince of Peace,
Provider,
Resurrection and Life,
Righteous Judge,
Rock,
Root of David,
Savior,
Satisfier,
Shepherd,
Son of God,
Strong Tower,
Sun of Righteousness,
The Truth,
The Way,
The Life,
Wonderful,
Wonderful Counselor,
Word of Life

sin is sin

"Sin is Sin." That phrase stuck out to me today during my Beth Moore Bible study since I'd just written how "People are people."

People are people; everyone loves and hurts and smiles and crys...

Sin is sin; whether it's anger or bitterness or adultry or murder...

James 2:10
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."

The point of the study lesson was how God uses the enemy to sift the icky sin, big or "little", out of our lives. When we're struggling with something, it's probably because something needs to get out of our lives so that God can use us for greater things. As Beth Moore said - it needs to be "defused by God" so it's not "used by the enemy". Satan wants to use our weakness to make us believe that we're no good and to feel guilt and shame while God can use that as a time to purify us of the weakness to make us strong...

1 Peter 1:3-9
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In His great mercy He has given us new birth
into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -
kept in heaven for you,
who through faith are shielded by God's power
until the coming of the salvation
that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while
you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
These have come so that your faith -
of greater worth than GOLD,
which perishes even though refined by fire -
may be proved genuine
and may result in praise, glory and honor
when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Though you have not seen him, you love Him,
and even though you do not see Him now,
you believe in Him
and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
for you are receiving the goal of your faith,
the salvation of your souls."

Refined.
Genuine.

people are people

"They're just big teddy bears!" That's what my Dad told me a long time ago when we walked past a bunch of bearded, leather clad motorcycle men. I thought about that and since then have applied his idea to others. People are people.

Today at the library, Ruth, Eli, and I saw a gal with a mask over her face. Ruth's comment was something like, "Look at her, Mommy! Silly!" I just told her that maybe she was sick and trying keep the germs away. "Yup, probably." She nodded a hello to us and on we went. People are people.

Then on the way out the door, I looked through the glass doors to see two bigger guys with dark gotees and big coats - smoking. The doors slide open for us to go out as they were there to come in. Just then, Elijah tripped over himself and fell right beside them onto the wet ground. They both stopped and one looked like he was about to help him up. I told them he'd be okay and they just smiled and went in as I put Eli back on his feet. People are people.

In 1 Samuel, I think it is, it says - Men look at the outward apperance but God looks at the heart. Maybe we should start looking at what God's looking at!