Why do we study God's word?
Hebrews 4:12-16, and Phillipians 1:3-11. To know God. To see ourselves truthfully. That we may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, to be filled with the fruit of righteousness. To have more abounding love, real knowledge and all discernment. We need to pray for a hunger to read and study His word daily, and we need to make that time to sit down and study. He loves it when we come to Him to know Him, just as we love when someone takes time to stop and get to know us. We ought to honor Him with our time.
Why can't we rely on someone else to study for us?
So we are informed during conversation. It is of no use if we are in regular conversation with someone, and all you can answer is "I don't know" to all of their questions.
"But I don't want to know more than my husband/father." - God's word administers grace and wisdom to us each day as we face various trials and temptations (including laziness in the name of letting someone else be "smarter.") God provides our leaders for us to support. How differently Abigail's story in 1 Samuel 25 would have turned out if she was not intelligent (vs.3). She prevented needless bloodshed and enmity, and was not found cowering in the kitchen, wringing her hands over what to do. In comparison, we don't even know the name of Lot's wife, who looked back at a city of destruction, wanting to return instead of trusting in God. We need to be aware if we are being led astray. It will do no good to tell the Lord, "But I didn't know!"
How do we let God's word inform the practical working out in our lives?
Read 1 Cor. 13:4-13. Love is kind. OR in a very practical rendition personalized to me - love is changing diapers. Love is getting up in the middle of the night to find Advil, or Tylenol, or comfort a crying baby. Love is having supper on time. Love is keeping up on the laundry. Love is responding gently instead of with a long sigh or an angry glance, even though I am exhausted. Personalize it. What do you need to work on? Where does love need to be applied?
God's word informs our lives and gives us our guidelines - gives us boundaries and freedoms, shows us how to live and why we are different.
Being familiar with the 10 Commandments, God's boundaries for us, gives us freedom. Imagine a great city, surrounded by a strong wall (Hadrian's Wall, for example. Pick a big wall.), always building and renewing for the glory of God. You are free to do as you wish, in the confines of the walls: safe. (There are armies that go out on excursions and conquer more of the wilds each day, but that's a different part of the story.) Now, imagine those same people in a wild, dark and untamed forest. They are trying to build, but people are always building walls and having them torn down as they continuously "open their minds" to modern ideas. Nothing lasting is ever accomplished because they will always be under attack. So how do we live? Why are we different? We lay our lives down so that we may truly live, living sacrificially for our neighbor. Who is our closest neighbor? Sister, brother, father, mother, spouse, child. If we cannot die for these, our closest, what makes us so eager and sure we can die for the "Poor Starving Children of Africa?"* In each situation we are presented with, we have the choice of responding in truth or in lies and in grace, or selfishness.
If we don't know God's word, we can easily by misled.
By becoming convinced (particularly with women) of our way of salvation through a certain way of education, (public, private, homeschool, classical, etc.) of nutrition (whole foods, enriched foods, low fat, no fat, low carbs, etc.), hygeine (sanitized, anti-bacterial, exposure, etc.), instead of recognizing God has sent our salvation, and it is Jesus Christ. Live in grace with one another.
How do we know whether or not Christians that we are reading or listening to are telling the truth unless we know God's word? We can get lost trying to "find ourselves," discovering our "true calling." We are sinful, we need to find Jesus, know Him. Trust He has put you where you need to be, and let tomorrow take care of itself. Are you doing today what God has called you to? What has He called you to? Washing dishes? Scrubbing toilets? Wiping up snot? Do it gladly, with a cheerful heart. This is what He has called you to today! God has given us struggles to embrace, to draw us closer to Himself, away from our sinful selves.
The importance of studying Scripture is so that we may know God, that we may live in love and grace with one another, forving as we have been forgiven. That we may be ever moving forward in our walk with Him, furthering His Kingdom, and bringing the whole earth into submission to Christ!
*While I do mock the title, PSCA, I do not in anyway wish to imply I have any malice towards those less fortunate, at home or abroad.
Friday, 14 October 2011
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Mother's Day
"Not all warfare looks like fighting." - Douglas Wilson
I was reading a good chapter in a book by Nancy Wilson, an author I respect greatly, and she had these good things to say about motherhood - "Just as men labor in the field, women labor in childbirth. It is hard work. ... This is a good work that women do, and it is a difficult and sometimes perilous engagement." In the words of Anne Bradstreet,
"How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend,
How soon't may be thy lot to lose thy friend." - Before the birth of one of her children.
I by no stretch of the imagination have much "under my belt" when it comes to the calling of Motherhood. I do have battle scars. There is unspeakable joy in holding that perfectly formed little human, the fruit of the womb. There is also pain. I remember having anxiety attacks when we got out of the hospital those first days - we'd be driving down the road, our precious bundle wrapped up in the backseat, safe and secure in her carseat and I would be unable to breathe. Terrified that we'd be in a car wreck, that I would trip and fall on her, that a tree would fall on us. My wonderful husband prayed with me through each one and we conquered those fears. I have many years ahead of me - triumphs, trials, laughter and tears ahead of me - but I take great comfort and courage from the many brave feet of mothers who have gone before me.
Don't fear the pain life brings. Face it head on, draw your sword. Stand on the promises God gives. Not all warfare looks like fighting, some of it looks like childbearing. Some of it looks like nursing while pregnant and eating all the time while battling morning sickness and keeping up on the laundry. It looks like bearing the pain of miscarriage, and knowing you'll meet your little one in heaven one day. I keep thinking when I get there I'll see a little baby waiting for me to carry in my arms - far more likely I will meet a grown child of mine. It's celebrating children's birthdays, graduations, weddings. Carry on, good soldier. This is a good work that women do. Happy Mother's day, indeed.
I was reading a good chapter in a book by Nancy Wilson, an author I respect greatly, and she had these good things to say about motherhood - "Just as men labor in the field, women labor in childbirth. It is hard work. ... This is a good work that women do, and it is a difficult and sometimes perilous engagement." In the words of Anne Bradstreet,
"How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend,
How soon't may be thy lot to lose thy friend." - Before the birth of one of her children.
I by no stretch of the imagination have much "under my belt" when it comes to the calling of Motherhood. I do have battle scars. There is unspeakable joy in holding that perfectly formed little human, the fruit of the womb. There is also pain. I remember having anxiety attacks when we got out of the hospital those first days - we'd be driving down the road, our precious bundle wrapped up in the backseat, safe and secure in her carseat and I would be unable to breathe. Terrified that we'd be in a car wreck, that I would trip and fall on her, that a tree would fall on us. My wonderful husband prayed with me through each one and we conquered those fears. I have many years ahead of me - triumphs, trials, laughter and tears ahead of me - but I take great comfort and courage from the many brave feet of mothers who have gone before me.
Don't fear the pain life brings. Face it head on, draw your sword. Stand on the promises God gives. Not all warfare looks like fighting, some of it looks like childbearing. Some of it looks like nursing while pregnant and eating all the time while battling morning sickness and keeping up on the laundry. It looks like bearing the pain of miscarriage, and knowing you'll meet your little one in heaven one day. I keep thinking when I get there I'll see a little baby waiting for me to carry in my arms - far more likely I will meet a grown child of mine. It's celebrating children's birthdays, graduations, weddings. Carry on, good soldier. This is a good work that women do. Happy Mother's day, indeed.
Saturday, 16 April 2011
In the amoebic beginning...
I've been thinking... and talking to a few friends about creation vs. evolution. Here's what I think it comes down to. It is about what exactly the bible says - we could argue all day about whether there were conflicting accounts about which day Adam was created, which day Christ was crucified, etc. But I think we're missing the most important point. It's the theological implications that have me the most concerned. I don't mean to mock their opinion, and yet I do, because if you follow to the logical conclusion, evolution mocks Christ's death and ressurection. Here is my re-telling of the beginning.
In the beginning, God sparked life like a match. There were four components - there was no day or night, evening or morning, water or earth or sky. There was amoebic Adam, amoebic Eve, a very simply amoebic replica of an apple and an amoebic serpent. God told them you can multiply and do anything you want, but don't touch that single cell "apple" of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you will surely die. At some point, the serpent wriggled over to Eve and said, "Did God really say you can't do anything?" To which Eve replied, "Oh no, we must just stay away from the apple, or we will surely die." The serpent said, "You will not surely die! God knows that in one of the millionth years that you touch it, you will become like Him, knowing good and evil." And Eve looked on the single cell, and saw it was beautiful, that it was edible, that it would make her wise, and she ate of it, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate of it. And their eyes developed and they saw that they were naked, and found that some single cell leaves had developed and covered themselves. Etc...
Now, before you quit reading in disgust, and possible offense, hear me out. The point isn't the amoeba's, the point is Adam and Eve. But it goes much deeper than that. My story writing is I would say poor to moderate, so I figured I'd go with what I already know, the Story the Word tells me. I'm sure someone could come up with a much more creative version. My issue is not with whether the Bible contradicts itself. My issue is with sin and death.
Sin had to be introduced at some point. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23. Now, was the earth/universe started with death already present? Or was it introduced by Satan through temptation? If so, when exactly? When "man" as he would one day be known was half-way there? 1/4 of the way? 3/4? Or when he was finally fully man and the order of the world thus far reversed and the law of entropy was introduced? The wages of sin is death. We see this reiterated over and over again because the Israelites had specific times of the year when a man from each family had to go and confess the sins of the family, sacrifice an animal and make atonement with God. It was part of the law, because blood needed to be shed. But! If the world is millions of years old... then there was death present. If it was present before sin, then death really wasn't the punishment for sin, it just became the punishment afterwards. That's literally like if a judge in a courtroom sentences everyone to death, before they have been tried, "Just in case." You cheapen the punishment by delivering it before guilt has been proven. Now, we are all sinners in that courtroom, and God has every right to sentence each one of us to death.
So, are we all born innocent and are taught by our imperfect surroundings to sin? If you think of sin as a deep ocean - do we crawl in as innocent babes and before we know it, find ourselves floundering for our lives? Or are we born into it? If we crawled into it willingly then, don't we have some capability of finding our way out? How come only One man out of billions didn't? Don't we have some resource that could possibly keep us out? Or are we totally and utterly deprived, drowning in our own imperfections, until Christ offers His hand and pulls us out of the mire? You know what's incredible? We are so blind that even when He offers His hand, we think He's pushing our head under deeper. Even when He offers rescue, we are so hard-hearted, we refuse because we are sinful and we. think. we're. fine. Until He opens our eyes, shows us we're drowning, and only then do we realize we need Him.
Was the first amoeba Adam (I'm giving it the name Adam because there had to a first one somewhere, and it's a fitting name) a single cell with fully developed thoughts, emotions and mental capabilities? How do you argue that? Why would God only partly create something? Then you mock Christ being the second Adam, the sinless and perfect Adam who did it right. Because He obviously had advantages over the amoeba.
Lastly, was there only one cell that just kept on growing and growing and becoming many and nothing ever died? And entropy was introduced when Adam sinned? You can't account for all the layers of the earth then. You can't account for fossil fuels that are "millions" of years old. If it's young, though, now that's a different story.
God slowed down creation enough for it to be documented so we could read about it. God could have snapped His heavenly fingers and the entire world would have been. But He didn't. He spoke it out, in seven days, because He had an order He wanted to lay out. He has a plan. Genesis is about Christ, the atonement.
In the beginning, God sparked life like a match. There were four components - there was no day or night, evening or morning, water or earth or sky. There was amoebic Adam, amoebic Eve, a very simply amoebic replica of an apple and an amoebic serpent. God told them you can multiply and do anything you want, but don't touch that single cell "apple" of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you will surely die. At some point, the serpent wriggled over to Eve and said, "Did God really say you can't do anything?" To which Eve replied, "Oh no, we must just stay away from the apple, or we will surely die." The serpent said, "You will not surely die! God knows that in one of the millionth years that you touch it, you will become like Him, knowing good and evil." And Eve looked on the single cell, and saw it was beautiful, that it was edible, that it would make her wise, and she ate of it, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate of it. And their eyes developed and they saw that they were naked, and found that some single cell leaves had developed and covered themselves. Etc...
Now, before you quit reading in disgust, and possible offense, hear me out. The point isn't the amoeba's, the point is Adam and Eve. But it goes much deeper than that. My story writing is I would say poor to moderate, so I figured I'd go with what I already know, the Story the Word tells me. I'm sure someone could come up with a much more creative version. My issue is not with whether the Bible contradicts itself. My issue is with sin and death.
Sin had to be introduced at some point. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23. Now, was the earth/universe started with death already present? Or was it introduced by Satan through temptation? If so, when exactly? When "man" as he would one day be known was half-way there? 1/4 of the way? 3/4? Or when he was finally fully man and the order of the world thus far reversed and the law of entropy was introduced? The wages of sin is death. We see this reiterated over and over again because the Israelites had specific times of the year when a man from each family had to go and confess the sins of the family, sacrifice an animal and make atonement with God. It was part of the law, because blood needed to be shed. But! If the world is millions of years old... then there was death present. If it was present before sin, then death really wasn't the punishment for sin, it just became the punishment afterwards. That's literally like if a judge in a courtroom sentences everyone to death, before they have been tried, "Just in case." You cheapen the punishment by delivering it before guilt has been proven. Now, we are all sinners in that courtroom, and God has every right to sentence each one of us to death.
So, are we all born innocent and are taught by our imperfect surroundings to sin? If you think of sin as a deep ocean - do we crawl in as innocent babes and before we know it, find ourselves floundering for our lives? Or are we born into it? If we crawled into it willingly then, don't we have some capability of finding our way out? How come only One man out of billions didn't? Don't we have some resource that could possibly keep us out? Or are we totally and utterly deprived, drowning in our own imperfections, until Christ offers His hand and pulls us out of the mire? You know what's incredible? We are so blind that even when He offers His hand, we think He's pushing our head under deeper. Even when He offers rescue, we are so hard-hearted, we refuse because we are sinful and we. think. we're. fine. Until He opens our eyes, shows us we're drowning, and only then do we realize we need Him.
Was the first amoeba Adam (I'm giving it the name Adam because there had to a first one somewhere, and it's a fitting name) a single cell with fully developed thoughts, emotions and mental capabilities? How do you argue that? Why would God only partly create something? Then you mock Christ being the second Adam, the sinless and perfect Adam who did it right. Because He obviously had advantages over the amoeba.
Lastly, was there only one cell that just kept on growing and growing and becoming many and nothing ever died? And entropy was introduced when Adam sinned? You can't account for all the layers of the earth then. You can't account for fossil fuels that are "millions" of years old. If it's young, though, now that's a different story.
God slowed down creation enough for it to be documented so we could read about it. God could have snapped His heavenly fingers and the entire world would have been. But He didn't. He spoke it out, in seven days, because He had an order He wanted to lay out. He has a plan. Genesis is about Christ, the atonement.
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Did everyone in the Old Testament go to Hell?
My youngest brother is one smart cookie. He's also a stealth cookie. When he was about 4, we were playing in the kitchen, and I blocked him off from the sink and taunted him saying, "I bet you can't get past me!" He tried once, and I blocked him. He took a step back, thought a second, looked at me and said, "I bet you can`t get past me!" He stood with his arms at his side, knowing I couldn't resist a challenge, and I jumped past him quicker'n'a cat. He smirked at me and said, "I got past you." And walked away.
He always asks the best questions. I love watching him grow, and knowing he's thinking about these things, issues that will shape the way he lives out the rest of his life. The other day he asked me two questions. One was, "Why aren't there prophets anymore?" The second was, "Did everyone in the Old Testament go to Hell?" Short, to the point, and totally loaded. Pretty basic questions, but when you don't know, it makes for a lot of uncertainty. If everyone in the Old Testament was damned, are we sure we are saved?
I'll give a little bit of history on myself this point. You may read what I used to think and say to yourself, really, Alyssa? but it's true! I used to think it was entirely possible everyone in the Old Testament may have gone to Hell. I also had a very misconstrued understanding of how the sacrifices in the OT worked, and I had no idea why there weren't prophets anymore. I had a very unfounded idea that perhaps God had sent Jesus and then duct taped His own mouth shut. I thought the sacrifices worked on this basic prinicple: Say I stubbed my toe on Wednesday and swore. I felt bad about cursing, but put off confessing it until Thursday. So, on Thursday, I had a change of heart, picked out two spotless pigeons and headed up to the Temple to sacrifice them and have my sins forgiven. One pigeon for the curse word, and one for being stubborn in confessing. Then say I made a stop on the way home from being forgiven at the market, and I get totally steamed at the outrageous prices at the fruit stand. So I slip a few mangoes in my satchel and saunter off. I get home, have a change of heart, pick out a ... lamb this time (bigger sin, I guess...), return the mangoes, apologize to the fruit stand owner, head up to the Temple, sacrifice my lamb, and head home to make dinner. As you can see, I seriously wondered how OT'ers ever got anything done, even the basic neccessities, and I also couldn't figure out how any of them actually got wealthy, since everyone is constantly sinning.
Why aren't there prophets anymore? Why are there no priests? Is it because God can no longer speak to us? He's given up on us foolish sinners, tired of sending His messengers, who get scorned and mocked and abused all in His name? No! Who do you think was the last prophet? The last priest? The ultimate sacrifice? (I promise, I'll straighten out my insanely crooked thinking on sacrifices in a minute.) Jesus Christ. The OT prophets and priests were mediators between God and His people, Israel. If we step back and look at the Church as the Bride of Christ for a minute, we'll see that Israel is that Bride. Then she was in her infancy, she needed a mediator to say, go here, do this, don't do that. Then Christ came, He died for us, and the curtain was torn. Now He is that mediator, and through Him we can meet with God. No longer does a priest have to sacrifice an animal first for his own sins so he can then go through the ceremony for us. He is the perfect sinless priest, He was the perfect sacrifice. Now we, gentiles too, are His Bride, part of the new Israel. She is maturing, and Christ is at the head.
Did everyone in the OT go to Hell? No. The wages of sin is death. If you work for a day, you get payed a days wage. If you sin, your just payment is death. Blood must be shed. That's what the OT sacrifices were - the blood that needed to be shed. When I sinned, I placed my hand on the head of that animal, I confessed my sins and the animal took my place in death. It had to be an animal without spot or blemish, but it still wasn't perfect. It wasn't a perfect replacement, I had to do it every year, not once in my life. The sacrifice was burnt, and the aroma was pleasing to the Lord, I was forgiven. So, we see that people in the OT times were forgiven. They too, had faith in Jesus Christ. Though He had not come yet, they looked forward to His coming, they knew there would be a day when He would come. And they rejoiced.
Lastly, yes, my preconieved notions of sacrifices were most definitely very wrong. I still don't have a full understanding of all the feasts and the times of the year when sacrifices were made, but my husband has promised to start studying it with me. If you notice a hole in my corrections of myself, or know of something more, please comment. I'd love to know more. There were seven feasts. Sabbath, Passover, First Fruits, Weeks (Harvest), Trumpets, Atonement and Booths. At three of these (Passover, Weeks/Harvest, and Booths), at least one male from each family was required to go to represent the family. So, my father-in-law could have gone and represented each of his grown children, including my husbands family (wife and child.) Or my husband could have gone, in place of everybody. This sounds like a big deal, but the cities where the feasts were held were situated all over Israel in such a way that it wasn't too far of a distance, a few days walking distance at the most, from any place in Israel. It would have been like a holiday, no different than us say, driving a couple days to Tennessee for Thanksgiving with Grandad and Grandma.
There were sacrifices offered every Sabbath, and each morning and evening at the Temples. There were five different types of offerings: Burnt Offering, Grain Offering, Peace Offering, Sin Offering and Guilt Offering. The man representing his family would make the offering(s), confessing the sins of the family, and the family was forgiven. At any time of year, a man could go and make an extra offering, if he'd been blessed abundantly and wanted to praise and thank God, to confess, etc. But if you were in attendance for at least the required feasts, you were "good" for the year, so to speak. :) I know, I know. You can quote me on that last highly technical, obviously extremely educated line.
And here is a great song to help you remember the feasts, it's in a very familiar tune. :) At least for all you Rogers and Hammerstien fans out there.
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search/song?q=JamieSoles
Blessings!
He always asks the best questions. I love watching him grow, and knowing he's thinking about these things, issues that will shape the way he lives out the rest of his life. The other day he asked me two questions. One was, "Why aren't there prophets anymore?" The second was, "Did everyone in the Old Testament go to Hell?" Short, to the point, and totally loaded. Pretty basic questions, but when you don't know, it makes for a lot of uncertainty. If everyone in the Old Testament was damned, are we sure we are saved?
I'll give a little bit of history on myself this point. You may read what I used to think and say to yourself, really, Alyssa? but it's true! I used to think it was entirely possible everyone in the Old Testament may have gone to Hell. I also had a very misconstrued understanding of how the sacrifices in the OT worked, and I had no idea why there weren't prophets anymore. I had a very unfounded idea that perhaps God had sent Jesus and then duct taped His own mouth shut. I thought the sacrifices worked on this basic prinicple: Say I stubbed my toe on Wednesday and swore. I felt bad about cursing, but put off confessing it until Thursday. So, on Thursday, I had a change of heart, picked out two spotless pigeons and headed up to the Temple to sacrifice them and have my sins forgiven. One pigeon for the curse word, and one for being stubborn in confessing. Then say I made a stop on the way home from being forgiven at the market, and I get totally steamed at the outrageous prices at the fruit stand. So I slip a few mangoes in my satchel and saunter off. I get home, have a change of heart, pick out a ... lamb this time (bigger sin, I guess...), return the mangoes, apologize to the fruit stand owner, head up to the Temple, sacrifice my lamb, and head home to make dinner. As you can see, I seriously wondered how OT'ers ever got anything done, even the basic neccessities, and I also couldn't figure out how any of them actually got wealthy, since everyone is constantly sinning.
Why aren't there prophets anymore? Why are there no priests? Is it because God can no longer speak to us? He's given up on us foolish sinners, tired of sending His messengers, who get scorned and mocked and abused all in His name? No! Who do you think was the last prophet? The last priest? The ultimate sacrifice? (I promise, I'll straighten out my insanely crooked thinking on sacrifices in a minute.) Jesus Christ. The OT prophets and priests were mediators between God and His people, Israel. If we step back and look at the Church as the Bride of Christ for a minute, we'll see that Israel is that Bride. Then she was in her infancy, she needed a mediator to say, go here, do this, don't do that. Then Christ came, He died for us, and the curtain was torn. Now He is that mediator, and through Him we can meet with God. No longer does a priest have to sacrifice an animal first for his own sins so he can then go through the ceremony for us. He is the perfect sinless priest, He was the perfect sacrifice. Now we, gentiles too, are His Bride, part of the new Israel. She is maturing, and Christ is at the head.
Did everyone in the OT go to Hell? No. The wages of sin is death. If you work for a day, you get payed a days wage. If you sin, your just payment is death. Blood must be shed. That's what the OT sacrifices were - the blood that needed to be shed. When I sinned, I placed my hand on the head of that animal, I confessed my sins and the animal took my place in death. It had to be an animal without spot or blemish, but it still wasn't perfect. It wasn't a perfect replacement, I had to do it every year, not once in my life. The sacrifice was burnt, and the aroma was pleasing to the Lord, I was forgiven. So, we see that people in the OT times were forgiven. They too, had faith in Jesus Christ. Though He had not come yet, they looked forward to His coming, they knew there would be a day when He would come. And they rejoiced.
Lastly, yes, my preconieved notions of sacrifices were most definitely very wrong. I still don't have a full understanding of all the feasts and the times of the year when sacrifices were made, but my husband has promised to start studying it with me. If you notice a hole in my corrections of myself, or know of something more, please comment. I'd love to know more. There were seven feasts. Sabbath, Passover, First Fruits, Weeks (Harvest), Trumpets, Atonement and Booths. At three of these (Passover, Weeks/Harvest, and Booths), at least one male from each family was required to go to represent the family. So, my father-in-law could have gone and represented each of his grown children, including my husbands family (wife and child.) Or my husband could have gone, in place of everybody. This sounds like a big deal, but the cities where the feasts were held were situated all over Israel in such a way that it wasn't too far of a distance, a few days walking distance at the most, from any place in Israel. It would have been like a holiday, no different than us say, driving a couple days to Tennessee for Thanksgiving with Grandad and Grandma.
There were sacrifices offered every Sabbath, and each morning and evening at the Temples. There were five different types of offerings: Burnt Offering, Grain Offering, Peace Offering, Sin Offering and Guilt Offering. The man representing his family would make the offering(s), confessing the sins of the family, and the family was forgiven. At any time of year, a man could go and make an extra offering, if he'd been blessed abundantly and wanted to praise and thank God, to confess, etc. But if you were in attendance for at least the required feasts, you were "good" for the year, so to speak. :) I know, I know. You can quote me on that last highly technical, obviously extremely educated line.
And here is a great song to help you remember the feasts, it's in a very familiar tune. :) At least for all you Rogers and Hammerstien fans out there.
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search/song?q=JamieSoles
Blessings!
Friday, 1 April 2011
Whew... that felt monumental
Monumental - stress the mental part. I just started a blog - one of those things that I think sometimes demands time... we're starting a family here, what am I doing??? This might get to be one of those blogs that gets lost in internet oblivion, that gets updated once every 3 years, 2 months and 27 days. That's okay.
I've been wanting to do this for a couple of months. Ever since I felt like I've got so much time on my hands. Which is never.
Choosing to start this blog, what to name it, what to sign my name as - those all felt like remarkable moments in history. I know, how sad is that? My hope is when I'm old and gray my great grandchildren will read what I have written and enjoy it. And maybe I'll get to learn a few things along the way, depending on how stubborn I feel. I have definite goals in mind. This is not a public diary. I want to address issues, challenge myself, celebrate the good things in life, encourage one another, and humble myself. My goal is to learn, to grow, to teach. Literally, since we intend to home educate our children. Yes, I know. That sounds like a recipe for lots of time for silly commitments I made to blog when I only had one infant. Anyways! Further up and further in!
I've been wanting to do this for a couple of months. Ever since I felt like I've got so much time on my hands. Which is never.
Choosing to start this blog, what to name it, what to sign my name as - those all felt like remarkable moments in history. I know, how sad is that? My hope is when I'm old and gray my great grandchildren will read what I have written and enjoy it. And maybe I'll get to learn a few things along the way, depending on how stubborn I feel. I have definite goals in mind. This is not a public diary. I want to address issues, challenge myself, celebrate the good things in life, encourage one another, and humble myself. My goal is to learn, to grow, to teach. Literally, since we intend to home educate our children. Yes, I know. That sounds like a recipe for lots of time for silly commitments I made to blog when I only had one infant. Anyways! Further up and further in!
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