Thoughts from Malachi

1:6    “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts. To you priests who despise My name, yet you say, “In what way have we despised Your name?

1:8  And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably? Says the Lord of hosts.

I do believe God gives us types and shadows (I learned this idea from a book entitled “My Father, My Father”). Many young people have the idea that honor belongs to parents only until a certain age or maturity level is reached. But when does your father or parent become not your father or parent anymore? My mother is in her 80’s and she is still my mother, my parent, and yes I actually believe she deserves my honor or obedience. My father passed away 7 years ago. I believe he still deserves my honor. For instance, my words toward him to others will always need to reflect honor. My father is not completely dead and gone. He is part of the spirit world now just as God my heavenly father is. If I cannot figure out how to honor my parents whom I have had in the flesh, how can I understand how to honor my heavenly father who is Spirit. How do we look at that in the reverse? Look at verse 8. In this instance we might think of it as: When you offer anything but honor to your parent, is it not evil? Learn from your parent what is and is not honoring to them so that you can better understand how to please your heavenly father. He is the one who gave you your parents to learn how to honor Him. He makes no mistakes. He gave you the parents you needed to help work out your sanctification.

My question to that generation younger than I, from whom I am so often hearing they “don’t do it that way now, they do it their way” is: Are you dishonoring God, even unknowingly, in this that you are doing? You do not want the Lord of hosts to say (vs 10) I have no pleasure in you, nor will I accept an offering from your hands.

Verse 13 just rings a bell of words and attitudes I have heard from several young ladies in their late twenties and early thirties these past few months. “You also say, Oh, what a weariness! And you sneer at it, Says the Lord of hosts. And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; Thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand? Says the Lord?

The end of the chapter sums it up: For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, “And my name is to be feared among the nations”.

Are you connecting with me here? How can you honor God if you are not honoring your parents? If you think you are honoring your parents but they are trying to tell you how you are not, does this scripture not tell you that you had better listen up and get it straight? Your excuse to God cannot be that you did not know.

Thoughts From Isaiah

This morning as I read from Isaiah some thoughts came to mind.  I read chapters 2-6.

Yesterday one of the girls and I went to the grocery store. The people who go to Winco in Longview seem to dress particularly disgusting. Elsie and I were able to get through the store pretty quickly and stayed focused on the items we needed to get. As we got back to our vehicle there was a woman at the car next to us putting away her groceries. I was just struck at how awful she looked. She had on a thin little white shirt that had very little fabric to it. She also had on thin little white short pants. Her whole shape was defined and the little fabric she had put on that morning was so thin she almost looked naked. The stark white fabric in the bright morning sunshine actually drew our eye to her. It was disgusting. That poor woman looked so gross. I looked over at my daughter and she looked so beautiful. Fresh, bright, happy. She was well covered with clothes and yet her beauty was popping out. The woman next to us was just the opposite. We wanted to turn away quickly from her to not have to view what she should be covering up!

So what did I see in Isaiah today?

2:3 Many people shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.

2:8 Their land is also full of idols; They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

2:11-12 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up – and it shall be brought low.

2:17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

3:6-9 When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father saying, “You have clothing; you be our ruler, and let these ruins be under your power,” in that day he will protest, saying, “I cannot cure your ills, for in my house is neither food nor clothing; do not make me a ruler of the people.” For Jerusalem stumbled, and Judah is fallen, because of their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves.

3:18-23 In that day the Lord will take away the finery:   .  .  .  .  . 

6:1 I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

6:9-10 And He said, “Go, and tell this people: Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.

I cannot help but think that we can so easily become like the people in verses 9-10. Did that woman in the parking lot not look in the mirror and see how she really looked that morning? All her negative physical attributes were going to be shown off to all who looked her way. Did she see but not perceive? Is her heart so dull, and her ears heavy and her eyes shut so that she cannot see with her eyes, and hear with her ears and understand in her heart that she needed to be healed so that she would understand that she needed to put more clothing on to be pleasing in the sight of others?

I have had to see pictures of too many females lately (warmer weather is here) with too little on. These are people I know. These are supposed to be “His people”. With knowledge and understanding we glory in the covering God provides for us. He has given us cover for everything in our lives. Why do we resist? 6:1 is a beautiful verse: I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Why do you think God put that last little part in there? As we read facebook today you would think that if God had less and less and less on, it would be lovely and pretty and beautiful! Females are getting” likes” and “loves” from “friends” when they are wearing less and exposing more of their bodies.  This just does not stand with scripture. The Lord was high and lifted up and the train of His robe filled the temple. Just think of it. How glorious. But it will most likely not be his robe or train that we are drawn to but His countenance. That will be true beauty. I cannot wait to behold it for myself in person. What a day that will be!! And that day will go on for all eternity. Because of Him, I am choosing to dress and choose and “do” all for Him.

6:20-21 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.

Let us encourage one another toward the things that bring glory to our Lord and Savior. Clothing is only meant as a covering. Dwelling on the covering over what is underneath it will not draw us closer to our Creator. Acquire clothing that is fitting for a child of a King and move on with your life. There is so much out there to do to advance His kingdom and it takes much time with Him to know how He wants each one of us to do that.

Funny Things To Picture

Ezra 10:9 …and all the people sat in the open square of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of heavy rain.    Vs 13 But there are many people; it is the season for heavy rain, and we are not able to stand outside.

Have you ever seen a drawing from scripture with rain other than Noah’s Ark type pictures? Have you ever seen a picture of men working on sacrifices at the temple in the rain? Jesus dripping wet? How often does scripture talk about the rainy season or heavy rain? Not often!

The Joy of Children

The Joy of Children

One of God's Special Gifts

 

I am blessed. God has given me 10 children. I appreciate the passage in Matthew 18 where Jesus calls a little child over and speaks to the people.

 Vs 3 – Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.  It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angles always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety –nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

Look at the tenor of this scripture. Jesus is calling us to be as little children. Little children have an innocence and purity about them. They are dependent upon their father. God wants us to be pure and innocent and dependent upon him. It is a good thing to be pure and innocent and dependent.

Verse 5: Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. Wow that is huge! What is our attitude to be toward little children? The attitude we have toward our Lord. Our Father. Children always adore their father when he is a good father and often even when he is not a good father. God put that in us to love our father. He wants us to love Him in that way. He wants us to not just wave at Him but to literally reach up to him as we see children all the time doing to their father. It is very natural for children to reach up to their father. They want to be in his embrace. The same should be the heart of a parent. God entrusts us with a precious little child. This is a gift from Him. I look into those beautiful new little eyes and I see purity from the Father. This child is brand new. This child loves its parents in the natural way that God has given it. This brand new baby wants to love it’s parents. Why did God make infants so dependent? I remember how amazed I was with my first new infant at how much you can love this brand new person so absolutely and completely. Isn’t it like that for most new parents? Then another God thing is that that same amazing thing happens with each child. You cannot believe you have room for that much more love again but we just do. It is the way God made us. It is the shadow of His love for us. He never gets tired of adding another new child to the family. Praise Him for His abundant love.

My heart is aching because of the materials one man has put out that many parents over the years and even still now are learning from. I believe evil gets into our churches any way it can. I believe Gary Ezzo is bringing evil into our church families’ homes. The Growing Kids Gods Way program does not set a higher standard. It tears down. It belittles God’s own creation. God knew what instructions we needed on parenting. He wrote them in His Word. He wrote them in our hearts. He gave women in particular that nurturing instinct that will drive us to lay down our lives for our child if necessary or induce us to hold a precious little one in our arms for hours. He is our example. Can I only get attention from Him every three hours? Do I have to stay quiet (sleep) for 1 ½ hours before he will again nourish me? It is a terrible person who tells a mother that she should only feed her baby every three hours or so. How dare he presume upon God’s creation so! God is so incredible that He created each human unique. When two unique humans come together and become one, they are now a unique couple. No other couple alive today or having lived in the past is exactly just like any other couple. That is the wonder of God. No two bodies respond to the same thing at the same time in the same way. God is incredible. Why would we mere humans presume that we can come up with a system that will work for all or even many babies? Gary Ezzo in his teachings takes a profound miracle of life and tries to put it in a box. Shame on him. He is taking joy away from new parents.  He leads mothers (women created with the feminine attributes of the God-head that men were not created with) to question their nurturing instincts and see the desire to hold their babies as much as they would like to, as giving in to emotion. Something they must learn to squelch. That is so wrong.

I have cared for failure-to-thrive children. Those children did not get that way from plenty of holding and being loved on by their parents. It took much physical loving and immediate attending to their needs to gain the trust of failure-to-thrive children. Those children did not get into their condition alone. It was the adults that left them alone and did not respond to their God given needs who cause their condition. I know what it takes to bring those children back because I have done it. There are no manuals or classes to tell you how to do that. We had to rely upon God’s promptings in our adult lives to give the children the nurturing they needed. To see a child blossom out of being a failure-to-thrive child is incredible. To see children in that condition or children headed in that direction is a heart-break. I have been shocked at what some Ezzo trained parents are doing to their children and calling it caring and disciplining. I have fixed messed up children. I know what I am talking about. I know the reality. Not only did God bless us with 10 children of our own to raise, He also gave us the opportunity to touch the lives of 139 foster children.

Please do not ever be tempted into going to an Ezzo presentation. I believe he is a man bringing evil into the church.

Faith vs. Knowledge

                                                          The Tale of Two Brothers

Two brothers, Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord. Genesis 4:4 says the Lord had respect for Abel’s offering but He did not respect Cain’s offering. Cain was faced with faith versus knowledge. He could take what God said and not understand it but he could put it into his knowledge bank that the offering his brother brought was acceptable and his was not. He can try to reason why he was right and God was wrong. God told him that it was not him but the offering. If he would get the offering right, the respect would be there. Cain goes to his brother and talks to him. I think that he probably went to his brother with an attitude of telling rather than listening. As you know the event ended in Cain killing his brother Abel. What an ultimate display of pride. Perhaps if Cain had allowed God to have the knowledge and he himself the faith, this murder would not have been on his hands. What a way to start a family history. This story is put there for us to learn from. Not so that we will have all knowledge, but to build our faith.

I think of two other brothers, one still alive today, and the other not. The eldest brother was always very pleasing in the sight of his mother. She loved him dearly and everyone knew that. The younger brother was loved also but everyone just did not hear so much about him, at least as a child. These brothers grew and went to college. Each followed in their father’s footsteps. The eldest son did not complete the final task and did not earn his accreditation even though he knew the subject and could now be a help to his father.  The youngest son did complete the final task to get some little letters behind his name along with a well-paying job. My, now all did hear how wonderful the younger son was. In addition, the younger son married and eventually presented mom and dad with a grandchild. This was very pleasing and gave the proud mama, now a grandma, much to rejoice over. Time for faith versus knowledge in the life of the eldest son. Mama still loved him very much and especially enjoyed that this son was living at home, being a great help to both dad at work and mom at home. For whatever reason however this son did not marry. The coming of a grandchild from his brother into the life of his parents put him over an edge to the depths of taking his own life. Perhaps if the elder brother had allowed God to have the knowledge and he himself the faith, this murder of self would not have happened. It can be seen some years later that faith could have him alive and happy to this day. If finding a wife on his own with his own knowledge was impossible to him, then why did he not have faith in the parents who loved him so, to help him get a wife? A wife who would have loved him if not at first, but learned to as God intended her to, and would have given him children to further deepen his joy and the joy of his parents. To this day he could still be living with his parents and now he and his family could be helping his mother care for his father whose health is rapidly declining. His mother is now in despair about her life in the future when her husband will be gone. Younger brother is very busy with his wonderful job as is his wife with hers, and they live way across town from mom and dad, and have very little time in their modern day schedule to even pay a visit to the folks, nevertheless be there helping.

 What are we losing because of a puffed up pride in our knowledge and our ability to live and function as a single individual or family unit. Why do we not seek the wisdom of God in the way he would have us to live? Just because something seems right to us, we must seek Gods answer before we really know. We must go to our Father and ask Him to show us how or what or where. Where was Adam when his sons brought their gifts before the Lord? Could dad have given some wisdom to Cain? God was not rejecting Cain, just the gift he brought. We must not get our feelings hurt when God rejects our way. We now have the opportunity to learn from Him. The more we learn from Him the more we can be like him. The closer we can be to Him. Even if I cannot see myself happy in God’s scenarios, there will be greater joy in the long run in following God’s plan.

**The Awakening of Sensuality *** The understanding of true beauty

Can it be that we have shielded our youth from sensuality in their early years, and now when they are awakened to it in an appropriate relationship such as marriage, they are not understanding the boundaries they should be keeping this area of life confined to? I know that for me, I saved myself for my husband, gave myself to my husband, and keep myself for my husband. I never felt the need to arouse or show off to other men. Just being the precious prize for my husband was enough. For him also, having me for himself was enough. He did not need to puff up his pride by showing the world the details of his wife’s body. To arouse another man by his wife’s form was never his agenda.

The important idea is what does God’s Word convey about how God would have us to live?

What would be the reasoning behind my dressing or acting provocative outside my bedroom?

·         My pride

·         My husband’s pride

·         Our own sinful lust

·         Denying Gods creation

·         Wanting to recreate man in my desired image

·         What is in the heart of a woman when she wears tight pants or shirts, revealing more and more of her flesh, and even wearing underwear that changes her proportions in a provocative way?

It seems that God created the sexual relationship between a man and a woman to be a private affair. A woman can be beautiful and desirous without being sensual. It does not take falsely enlarged breasts being shown off under tight, thin, scanty fabric to be beautiful. What a cheapening of self to think that is what it takes.

I met a woman at an activity my children were involved in. She was one of those cute little things who came in in very stylish clothes. High heels, tight jeans, funky hair and glasses. Any men around would usually drop their jaw and drool as she walked by. The world in its sinful desires makes us to think that this is the most desirous way to look. This gal was not showing so much flesh but truly adorning her lovely petite body in such a way as to easily turn men’s heads. Over the course of a couple years she asked my daughters and I a few questions here and there. Our families became friends truly by her reaching out to us because I was not a fan of hers from what I saw on the outside as most of the other women were. Turns out this was a neat Christian family who were willing to let God work in their lives. Homeschooling became an answer to some of the problems going on in their household. One day the mom commented that she realized that she had no skirts or dresses in her closet except for formal wear. Not one to be lacking in a complete closet she bought a casual skirt. Upon wearing it, she began to see a difference in life. A long story shortened. One evening this mom came in to drop off her kids. She was beautiful. I said wow, where are you going? She said that it was their anniversary and she and her husband were going out for dinner. I smiled and said to have fun.  I wrote that mom an email the next week asking her if her husband was unable to take his eyes off her during dinner and if he told her she was the most beautiful woman.  She wrote back an email to be cherished. She thanked me for the example my daughters and I had set for her and her girls. She said that yes that was basically how the dinner went and the depth of its meaning was rich beyond her hopes or dreams. She was very gracious and grateful for this newfound understanding of love and relationship between husband and wife. You see, what that beautiful woman had on that night was a longish dark skirt with low healed shoes. She had on a blouse that was a delicate white fabric with small embroidered flowers in a loose feminine style. On that was a light sleeveless sweater with matching embroideries. She had on very light makeup and her hair was down and straight with turned under ends. No flamboyant glasses to be seen. She floated in, quietly exuded her beauty, and then slipped out to join the love of her life. Her face radiated. Perhaps no men gawked at her that night, but it was for her husband she was beautiful. In that she found the utmost in fulfillment.

It is only sin creeping into our life that makes us think we need to be sensual before others to bring enjoyment or fulfillment or validation to our own lives. God created a perfect plan when he made sensuality to be between one man and one woman.  We can be complete and completely fulfilled through his perfect plan.

Funny Pictures from Scripture

Ezra 10:9 …and all the people sat in the open square of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of heavy rain.    Vs 13 But there are many people; it is the season for heavy rain, and we are not able to stand outside.

Have you ever seen a drawing from scripture with rain other than Noah’s Ark type pictures? Have you ever seen a picture of men working on sacrifices at the temple in the rain? Jesus dripping wet? How often does scripture  talk about the rainy season or heavy rain? Not often!