I'm not Sure What This is all About

Perhaps they were playing junkyard.

Holy Ground

God said to Moses in Midian: "Go. Return to Egypt. All the men who wanted to kill you are dead." 

(notice God didn't say the men who wanted to kill you because you are a murderer...)

 



I'm in Exodus now, and I am always amazed at the burning bush story. Here Moses is in the desert, trying to live a life of probably just getting by. All the former splendor of Egypt behind him.

He killed a man in Egypt, he ran away figuring (I assume) that was it for his connection to his people. He would live and die a stranger in a strange land.


God appears to him, tells him to go back to Egypt and not only see his family, but deliver them.  God tells him He will be with him, He will teach him what to say, He will perform wonders so that the Hebrews will believe that God has sent him.





One thing he didn't mention, though, was Moses's sins.




He only seems to become angry at Moses's hem hawing and unbelief.




There's a definite lesson there.

Teas

Fancy Bridal Shower Luncheon

After Supper Dishes

I am blessed:)

Family Movie Night Reviews- Because of Winn-Dixie

We try to set aside Saturday evenings with no guests, no computer, no video games and all sit down as a family to watch a movie together. We don't have cable or wish to subscribe to any kind of movie service, so we buy a DVD once in a while to add to our library. Some are keepers and some are not. Finding it very difficult to find info online about specific movies that fit our criteria, I thought I would start reviewing ours here, usually on Monday. Hopefully this will be of use to anyone looking to build their own family movie library.

This was another movie passed onto us by a friend, and I really liked this one.




A young girl and her preacher dad move to a small town. She doesn't have any friends, having left them all behind in their last move. At church one Sunday, she prays that God would send her a friend and then later meets up with a stray dog she names "Winn-Dixie".  The dog helps her to meet and connect with just about everyone in town. The people that she thought were unfriendly or mean, all had hurts and loneliness just like her. She becomes closer with her dad and learns about why her mother left them (this is a bit sad). It ends happily, not with all problems solved, but with the feeling that life goes on and we can choose to be happy in our circumstances with the support and love and acceptance of those around us.




It was rated PG for "mild language". I didn't notice any really. It was a bit on the long side, and could be tear jerking, but not unbearably so. There were some nice comic relief scenes to even those out. I liked the overall theme of love, forgiveness, and redemption.





I would recommend this movie for family viewing.

At the Grocery Store

Mantis

Our neighbor friend is always catching snakes, turtles, spiders and all the kinds of things moms like brought to them. One of my sons came running in the house yesterday looking for a fly to feed it, so I had to go out and get a picture.

Spider Web

Breadth, Length, Depth, Height

 

 

Ephesians 3:14-21

Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

¹⁴ For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁵ of whom the whole family in the heavens and on earth is named,

¹⁶ that He may give to you, according to the riches of His glory, with might to be strengthened through His Spirit, in regard to the inner man,

¹⁷ that the Christ may dwell through the faith in your hearts, in love having been rooted and founded,

¹⁸ that ye may be in strength to comprehend, with all the saints, what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,

¹⁹ to know also the love of the Christ that is exceeding the knowledge, that ye may be filled -- to all the fulness of God;

²⁰ and to Him who is able above all things to do exceeding abundantly what we ask or think, according to the power that is working in us,

²¹ to Him [is] the glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus, to all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen.

I've been pretty quiet here.   I guess I don't have all that much to add to blog world after all....

I love blogging, and in the beginning the idea was to share end times type stuff and bible studies and it just be a hub for all my links and things, but things change and progress and Our Great Father continues to work on me. 

Ask .....seek....knock.

A recent bout of wrestling verging on a full blown despair brought me to His feet again 

wondering what is next. 

He gives me signs, nudges, encouragement, and has shown unfailing Love.

God IS Love.

Don't doubt it for a second.

The passage at the top of the post has special significance currently.  I was praying about something- wondering if He could He would He heard ......does He understand?

 Our High Priest is compassionate, He remembers we are but dust.  

On that very day at a bible study group, the regular prayer time was substituted for a short closing as some of the kiddos were gettin' antsy. I had asked for this very very thing earlier that day. The leader opened her bible, said she knew just the passage to close with.....

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

He says not only can I do what you ask, but above what you can even think. And He has and Is.

Blue Evening

Fun with Sepia

Family Movie Night Reviews- The Princess Diaries

We try to set aside Saturday evenings with no guests, no computer, no video games and all sit down as a family to watch a movie together. We don't have cable or wish to subscribe to any kind of movie service, so we buy a DVD once in a while to add to our library. Some are keepers and some are not. Finding it very difficult to find info online about specific movies that fit our criteria, I thought I would start reviewing ours here, usually on Monday. Hopefully this will be of use to anyone looking to build their own family movie library.

The cover is a bit strange. I don't recall Mia wearing sunglasses or headphones in the movie at any time. It immediately makes me think of the cover of Tommy.  I don't know why I think of these things. Carry on.....

This was another DVD given to us recently- thank you!






In short, a geeky high school girl finds out her dad was the prince of a European country. He has recently died and her grandmother, the queen, comes to the States and tells her she is the rightful heir to the throne. Her mom never told her this while she was growing up and and been divorced from the prince for most of Mia's life. She goes through "princess lessons" and has to decide whether she will accept the title or not in three weeks as the Genovian Independence Day Ball.



This was cute and funny in places. It is rated G, but I may have given it a PG for some teenage smooching - not too over the top, but still. There was no bad language or blasphemy, but if issues of divorce, dating, and the like are not something your family wants to tackle, this may not be good.


It was a bit long at about 2 hours, but did keep the kids' attention.  It was enjoyable, but not really a family movie for us, it was more geared toward young adult girls. I could totally see it being a good slumber party movie.

Glittery Grass

Trees can't Hide the Light

Do not be Angry with Yourselves

One of my favorite passages of Genesis is this one:

Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Make everyone go out from me!” So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. ² And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it.
³ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; does my father still live?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. ⁴ And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. ⁷ And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. ⁸ So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. -Genesis 45

Joseph made his brothers go through a lot after their initial meeting in Egypt before revealing himself to them.  I always wondered what that was about until now. (I kind of thought it was mean of Joseph to be so weird about the whole thing). He was testing them, I think, seeing if they had learned anything by the things that they had gone through. Finally, he could see that they were sorry and couldn't hold back his love and all the riches of Egypt from them.

¹⁶ Now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” So it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. ¹⁷ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and depart; go to the land of Canaan. ¹⁸ Bring your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. ¹⁹ Now you are commanded—do this: Take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives; bring your father and come. ²⁰ Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.-Genesis 45

I can see why it is said that Joseph is a type of Jesus. There is much we can draw from the story. 


Mercy triumphs over judgement!

Fluffy

Reuben

I'm currently reading through the bible about a chapter a day; no study guide, no commentary, no agenda. I would really like to just see what it actually says.





Something stood out in Genesis 42 in my reading recently. After the whole deal with Joseph, and him going into Egypt, being given the second position and seeing his brothers once and requiring Benjamin be brought to him in order to release Simeon from jail, The brothers beg Jacob to let Benjamin go to which he replies:

 “You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.”

But Reuben steps in and says: 

 

“Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”

What a thought- Reuben giving up his own two sons in exchange for the loss of his father's sons. Was this an actual offer? Would Jacob have killed his own grandchildren if Benjamin hadn't been returned?



It seems that in the beginning of this whole deal, Reuben was the only one against killing/selling Joseph to begin with. He also may have been extra pained with guilt after this happened as well.





My heart went out to Reuben in this story. He just wanted things to be right again. A man laden down with guilt and sins trying to comfort his father. 

Drying Shoes

Family Movie Night Reviews- Shark Tale

We try to set aside Saturday evenings with no guests, no computer, no video games and all sit down as a family to watch a movie together. We don't have cable or wish to subscribe to any kind of movie service, so we buy a DVD once in a while to add to our library. Some are keepers and some are not. Finding it very difficult to find info online about specific movies that fit our criteria, I thought I would start reviewing ours here, on the Monday after mostly, and hopefully be able to be of use to anyone looking to build their own family movie library.

We got this one along with a few others from a nice lady at our church who has apparently seen the blog here. Neat:) She gave me her blessing to watch, trade, give away the bunch. We picked this one first to check out.



 A little fish in a big ocean wants to make it big. When the favorite son of a shark mob boss gets accidentally killed, Oscar (the little fish) takes advantage of the situation and becomes famous for slaying the dreaded shark. He later teams up with the mob boss's not so favorite son to keep up the ruse. He finds out that fame and fortune aren't all they seemed to be, comes clean, gets the girl and lives happily ever after.



It was entertaining enough. There are a lot of "wise guy" type references and "mild language" according to the box, but I didn't really notice any myself.  I think the kids will probably want to watch it again, but I don't think the Mr. was too impressed. It can go into our not movie night movie pile for them to watch on a rainy day.



Shark Tale was fine for our family to watch.

Good Morning

Let's Pretend it's a Rocket Ship...

...because it doesn't have any wheels.  - S (age 5)

He Brought me Flowers

on the way back from the mailbox. Red clover for making tea:)

Sun Reflection

Go Get Your Land

 

 *This is a repost from February of 2011. It came to mind again this week since we taught on this very thing in our Sunday School class. I found it interesting that the enemies weren't the giants or the walled cites, but FEAR. This passage from our teacher's manual says it all for me:


"They knew they were promised this new land flowing with milk and honey. Yet they were easily swayed into disbelief and panic."

Disbelief and panic...yup.  However, I am in a good place with this going in right now, so a bit more optimistic than the post below. God keeps working on us when we ask, seek, knock. 


He is good, His mercy endures forever!

 _________________________________________________




Waiting on the LORD.


He's been trying to get my attention in the prayer area lately, I know it. I am a lazy pray-er, I'll admit it. I don't really know why. I take the "pray without ceasing" clause to mean that I can have prayer running in the background all the time, which I do, but getting alone and quiet with Him is something I don't do too often.  In a way I am afraid of getting too close somehow which is crazy, I realize.

He answers:

Listening to a teaching today, something popped out. It was on Deuteronomy and how God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt through the wilderness, sustaining them all those years, and now here they were at the threshold of the Promised Land and God says "Go get your land, it's yours, I'll take care of everything." And they didn't believe. So back into the wilderness they go.

This is what I have been doing for years- an endless cycle. Oh sometimes I'll step my foot in, but I think: No, not me, I'm not worthy, I don't belong here, I really don't believe you can defeat the enemies inside, etc.

Lord, help my unbelief.

Sunset in the Grass

Family Movie Night Reviews- Planet 51

We try to set aside Saturday evenings with no guests, no computer, no video games and all sit down as a family to watch a movie together. We don't have cable or wish to subscribe to any kind of movie service, so we buy a DVD once in a while to add to our library. Some are keepers and some are not. Finding it very difficult to find info online about specific movies that fit our criteria, I thought I would start reviewing ours here, on the Monday after mostly, and hopefully be able to be of use to anyone looking to build their own family movie library.

The kids got this one for Christmas last year. We just got around to viewing it this weekend.


In brief, planet 51 is home to these green alien people who are "invaded" by a human astronaut. He (the human) has 72 hours to get back to his ship or he will be stuck there. Everyone is afraid of him and the government is out to get him, but  he runs into an inhabitant who helps him to return home.


It was kind of cute, there were some funny jokes and a couple of nice scenes of self-sacrifice and loving your enemies.   There were some instances of crude humor that I could have done without,  but no bad words or blasphemy.  I doubt that it will make it into our regular rotation, but I think it is fine for family viewing.

Storm that Was

Firey Moon

August

Storm that Wasn't