Honor Mom

Honoring parents is so much more that obedience. While that may be a part of honor, it is not all. To honor a person is to respect him or her. It is also to remember, and to hold dear.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12

My mother’s birthday is this month. I shared these things on facebook with my family. Many of them commented on their own remembrance of these products. A cousin in Wales still uses HP. A Welsh-Canadian, turned American, still uses Lyle’s and Bird’s and HP.

While these are products, they are part of Hearth Memories. Those are the memories we all share of being in the kitchen while the cooking’s done, of setting the table, of carrying the food out, and of gathering together to eat. They become a part of who we are as humans.

These are reminders, too, of things I’ve learned from my Mom: like G-d works in mysterious ways; like “It turned out nice again.”

Here are three things I remember, and this is my way of honoring the memory of my Mother.

HP is for steaks, but as i don’t/ won’t eat meat, it’s okay on veggies once and awhile. I remember trying to trick Mom by putting A-1 sauce in an empty HP bottle.

i really liked Bird’s custard. Found some in a store, but haven’t tried to make it yet; i’m sure it wouldn’t taste like Mom’s.

Did you know Golden Syrup was originally tapped from palm trees in Sri Lanka. i think it’s just sugar syrup now, though. i still have fond memories of Mom putting it on top a thin slice of toast.

And, no, not everyone knows who their parents are. Sad. Many children are abandoned or abused by their parents, and the parents make no effort to reconcile. Sad. Not all things that parents do are right. And some things are very bad, even if they the parents do mostly good. Yet we are called to honor our parents nonetheless. This can be a hard thing. I feel badly about that. I don’t know how that can be done. But the Lord knows and can work His way within those who seek Him.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

As the Days of Noah. . .

The Last Days. It’s on a lot of minds these days. Wars. Ebola. Islamic Terrorists. Rampant Crime. How could we not think that these are the Last Days. Yet, in all sincerity, as a human race we’ve had wars, famine, plague, and more than enough crime. The past looks pretty ugly. And yet, the mass of men, living lives of quiet desperation (thanks HD Thoreau) just kept on living. “Eat, Drink, Be Merry, for Tomorrow We May Die!” is the prevailing motto. This is the paradigm in which we, as Earth-dwellers live.

That’s what the Days of Noah were all about. Just going on despite the violence they perpetrated or experienced. That’s my sense of it all. We talk of the Last Days, but do we really believe it is here? Reading Genesis chapter six tells of G-d’s disappointment with the sin of the people. They’d become a real pain [ in King James English that was translated as G-d repenting of His creation] to Him. It’s Y’shuaJesus’s view of those times that opens things up for me.

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Matthew 24:36-39

Generally, people are simple unaware. Period. Sure, we occasionally get a Chicken Little running about yelling, “The sky is falling. The sky is falling.” And lots of things point to toward the Last Days. But we largely ignore the signs. We go on marrying, eating, living, dying. And maybe that’s okay, too. Maybe our lives are meant simply to be lived, that we just need to be good and do good, in the capacity that we find ourselves. Maybe that’s enough. But in the Days of Noah, the people were violent, sinful, because they’d lost their view of G-d. They’d forgotten G-d. The people of Israel, years later, did the same thing. A judge would arise, chosen by G-d to turn the hearts and minds of the people back to G-d–and to vanquish the enemy that had come against Israel. Than the judge would die and the people would again forget.

What I think. . . maybe. . . it’s okay to go on marrying, eating, and going to church weekly or whatever; but we need to turn our eyes toward the Heavens, we need to turn our eyes toward the Lord. The Lord must be the center. For if the Lord is the Center, then the Center will hold and our lives won’t fall apart.

Awake in the morning rejoicing G-d; go to bed at night thanking G-d for another mundane, ordinary day living for and through Him. And if at night we hear a voice calling our name. . . Listen Up! Look Up!

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Thank You Lord for the Victory

Matthew Henry wrote: “Wherever we are, we may speak to God, and worship him. God must have the praise of that which encourages our faith. And his providence must be acknowledged in events, though small and seemingly accidental”

And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house. . . -Deuteronomy 26:11

It is shameful that I so often forget, in my living and in my praying, that thankfulness and gratitude go much further to bring me into the Holy Presence of the Lord Y’shuaJesus than all my good requests and good intentions. And to live, authentically, I must live in His presence. Saying “Thank You, Lord” when things work out is all well and fine. However, it’s a mark of true Christian Character that when things are difficult, things are rough, when trials are like fire licking my feet, that a man or woman in Messiah’s Care can rejoice in thankfulness to a G-d Who is personal, Who is loving, Who is faithful to show His Light after a long walk through a dark valley.

In these times, which appear to be close to the Last Days, peace with G-d is paramount and is sought by many. We as Believers in Messiah Y’shuaJesus understand the truth that the only way to have that peace is through Y’shuaJesus. We are warned that many will come in the Name of G-d saying many things. We are warned that we will be persecuted for our Truth. So there is physical trials we must endure. But there are other trials: for we battle a spiritual enemy that delights in emotionally battering us. We have feelings that betray us, disrupt our peace. As we are inundated with thoughts and fears, we pray for help and deliverance. We feel like we are dying, perhaps. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, or so goes the saying today. We must remember that we are not going to die. So all these hardships, both physical and emotional, only makes us stronger.

Being thankful to G-d isn’t thanking G-d for the trials, necessarily. Being thankful and rejoicing in that thankfulness, is remembering the past deliverance that G-d has done personally in our lives. Remember the time He did . And being thankful to G-d is rejoicing in the remembrance of those times of His deliverance. I can certainly begin a prayer with “Oh, Lord, please save me. . .” and proceed to go at length talking to Him about all that concerns me, that threatens me, that makes me feel so badly. But how much better it is when I say, “I praise you Lord, I thank You. For in times past You have rescued me and You have shown me that You were near me though I didn’t feel Your presence. Thank You that even today, even now, I can understand that despite how I feel, You are there with me. Together I will overcome, in Your Name by Your Power.”

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

It’s a crazy world these days

Ferguson, MO. According to news reports, out-of-town agitators are entering the town and stirring up trouble. These reports say police arrests are being made of mostly people from out of town, many from out of state. Coming from outside, stirring up trouble, isn’t new. I remember Watts, the major riot in the 1960s. While living in Augusta, GA, in the early 1970s, I was told about protests and subsequent riots there. Local folks were peacefully protesting some issue and agitators came from the north stirring up trouble, turning the protests into riots.

These days, Riot-control techniques include using spotters to locate, and quickly subdue such agitators. The difficult thing is entering a crowd of people to arrest one agitator, who may quickly turn the entire crowd against the arresting officers.

This outside interference–or support, depending on your outlook–is told in the Book of Acts.

But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed of Paul at Beroea also, they came thither likewise, stirring up and troubling the multitudes. Acts 17:13

As Believers, as Elect, as People of G-d, we know there are fallen angels from Heaven here to trouble the people of this world, both Believers and non-believers. We know this. The agitators in Ferguson, MO, are themselves being stirred up. Any love of peace is being driven out of them.

These are troubling times; these are crazy times. Weird things are happening throughout the Earth, not just in Ferguson, MO. Ebola in Africa, with potential cases popping up in other countries outside of Africa. The U.S. is entering the ware in Iraq–again. There is trouble throughout the Middle East. And Arabs broke a short stay of violence in Gaza. There’s a volcano possibly erupting in Iceland. Muslim scholars are now calling for a ‘global uprising’ against Israel. Evan as we are building complex computer networks throughout the world, becoming technologically advanced, Al Qaeda is targeting U.S. infrastructure for a digital 9/11. And then there’s California, the state in which I was born and lived most of my live: California breaks drought record as 58% of state hits driest level. Are the Horsemen of Revelation upon us? I don’t know. I only know that we have a response to make, action to take. It is this:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Eph 6:12

The warfare in which we engage is spiritual. Our weapons are spiritual. And our prayers are not based upon our strength, our courage, our righteousness; we pray in the Name of the Lord our Messiah.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine upon y’all. . .

Exploring our Roots

“Where do you come from?” is a great questions. A boy of five or so came home from school and asked his mom, “Where did I come from, Mom?” The mother, though prepared for this moment, dreaded it, but began the long tale of the “Birds and the Bees.” An hour later, her son was well versed on conception and birth, on how babies get to be, well, babies. His only response was something like, “Oh,” followed with, “Jack said he came from Erie, Pennsylvania.”

As we see here, there are a couple ways to look at the question, “Where do you come from?” The mom thought of a biological response. The boy thought of a geographical response. If I ask you, as a Christian, what you believe, you might answer that you believe in Jesus, that Jesus is the Son of G-d. Right you are. We look at Jesus as the Son of G-d, as our Savior, as our Lord. Jesus is also the Son of Man. The other side of the Spiritual is the contextual: Jesus as a young Jewish man, raised in a Jewish home, in a Jewish town, in a Jewish country under domination by the Roman Empire.

That’s why I use the term Y’shuaJesus. Our Christian roots are also the roots of Y’shuaJesus as the Son of G-d AND the Son of Man.

So, I want to introduce you to a website I found this morning that I think valuable in understanding our common roots in Judaism; our Hebrew Roots.

Please take a look at: Hebrew for Christians.

It’s more than the study of Hebrew as a Biblical language. As stated on the home page, Hebrew for Christians “provides information about common Hebrew blessings and Jewish prayers, the Hebrew Scriptures (Tanakh), the Jewish holidays, and weekly Torah portions from a Messianic point of view. The Hebrew Names of God, as well as an online glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms is also provided. Be sure to check out the online store for some excellent study materials!”

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 4:24-26

When the water warms. . .

. . . the fish seem so much more active.

Lately it feels like that for me, at least mentally. And that’s not a good thing, really. I’m not talking about great mental activity, great productive writing or thinking or praying. I’m talking about thoughts swimming around too fast, feeling like attention deficit. I’m talking about focus.

Summer finally arrived here in north Georgia. And with it an odd anxiety. It’s all in my head.

I began a study looking at “Rights” and “Justice.” I quickly got overwhelmed, moved on, and haven’t returned. Perhaps it’s just not the time to write about it. Perhaps it’s “the enemy” attacking me. Perhaps it’s just too many fish in the warm water of my mind.

It’s also that several things lately have reminded me of the “End Times.” I recalled that Y’shuaJesus said we need to be vigilant for we don’t know the time of the coming wrath. And I am encouraged by the Apostle Paul, who, guided by the Spirit of G-d, wrote:

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Romans 5:9

Relax, I tell myself. There’s nothing to be anxious about. Anxious. Anxiety. Y’shuaJesus comforts us with words meant to sooth us, to let us know that we need not be anxious. When I think about being anxious about nothing, I remember I once attended in which it was somehow inappropriate to be anxious or concerned or upset. I remember how the preacher led praise and the congregation danced in procession around the auditorium. I remember the faces that held tight their anguish, forcing smiles. It was as if some one might let out a brief display of sadness and an Elder coming around saying, “Your not. . .” this or that or some other thing or another. “Let go, Let G-d,” he or she might say.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s alright to feel sad, or blue, or anxious, or distracted. Maybe that’s what makes us human. It makes me wonder just how far we’ve come to trying to be emotionless robots, flesh-covered computers. Adverts on the television tell us to ask our doctors about this drug or that drug to make us feel better. Preachers tell us we need to get right with G-d, and we’ll feel better. The best one I’ve ever heard, is that Solomon was depressed when he wrote Ecclesiastes. “All is vanity. . .” Maybe King Solomon was right. Maybe we’re just being deluded into accepting a well-placed lie. “Life is wonderful. Life is beautiful. Be happy.”

It seems to me that it’s okay feel what ever way we feel. And with those feelings, perhaps because of those feelings, we grasp tighter to the hem of our Savior’s clothing and, as Apostle Paul so said, find a contentment in even these tribulations. Perhaps in the depths of anxiety, we may rejoice. This isn’t suppose to be a “wonderful life.” It’s suppose to try us. For Life that is wonderful is Life with our Savior when He comes for us.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Lazy Hazy Days of Summer. . .

. . . NOT! Although our spring lasted well into June, with good rain and cool temperatures, that’s over now, and hot and humid by two o’clock in the afternoon is the order of things. While there’s been some storm clouds building late in the day, we’ve had only sprinkles this past week. But the mornings–those are wonderful. Cool, with minimal bugs, birds singing, frogs croaking. Pleasant!

Echinacea — Echinacia or Cone Flower, while there is no scientific evidence to show that echinacea will heal, Native Americans and even Elk have used it for its immunological properties. And we grow it for the same reasons!

In the garden all weekend, digging out more clay, replacing it with top soil, planting. We also began work on a second pond that is a few feet higher, up slope, from the one we dug last year. Water will pump out of the old pond into a stock tank that will filter the water, dumping it into the new pond. From there water will fall two-foot into the old pond. The building process begins with digging out very hard clay down nearly three feet on one end, and a bit under two feet on the other. A wall added to that side will raise it above the older pond. We have rubber liner that will hug the clay, sealing the pond. Once the new pond is filled with water, we’ll let it sit a day or so and move all the fish and plants into it from the old pond. A thorough cleaning of the old pond is next. Refilled with water, letting it sit to de-clorinate, then we can move some of the plants and fish back.

Another Pond — Beginning to build another pond.

We’re adding a new, larger pump to fill the stock tank we’ll use as a filter, providing water flow of about 3200 gallons an hour. The old pumps will be re-purposed into aerators for each pond that will bubble air into the water to help with algae control.

Most of the work is just plain hard labor of digging out the clay. The interesting part comes when cutting in the new pond, getting the water to flow the way we want, and arranging the plants.

But one step at a time. Like in all things, it all begins with the sweat and aching muscles of hard work.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine upon you all.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
He will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore
Psalm 121:7-8

Creed and Cross

Growing up attending an Episcopal Church (Anglican Church), I remember bits and pieces of the various liturgies, among them both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed. Both creeds have been around since the 4th Century. And, no, I wasn’t there when they were first used, though my teenage daughter asked me once if I played with dinosaurs when I was little and didn’t mean toy ones, either. She said she was only kidding. But what exactly is a creed, and why is it important?

A creed is a confession, a symbol, or statement of faith. It is something that states or displays the shared beliefs of a particular group of people. Creeds are summaries, expressing only core elements that are essential to a group of people. Creeds are not comprehensive. The Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed are only two such statements of faith, summaries of core beliefs. Some churches use the four spiritual laws as a form of creed. These are often stated as: 1) God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life; 2) Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life; 3) Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life; and 4) We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

The Cross is a form of Creed, too; it is a symbol of both the death of Y’shuaJesus and the life that we are offered through His death and subsequent resurrection. The image at the right is a Celtic Cross, and is seen throughout Wales. In a cemetery in Wales, a large Celtic Cross stands at the head of my family’s plot, and looks much like that one. I’ve written previously about the giant aluminum crosses along many interstate highways in America. The cross also marks most of the grave markers at the cemetery in Normandy where buried are soldiers who died on the “D-Day” invasion to liberate Europe.

Professions of faith, of belief. Since the 4th Century the Nicene Creed has summed up the faith that Christians must have to be considered Christian. The Cross is a visible symbol of that belief. After a time, as I’ve mentioned before in other posts, it is good for us to go back to the place where we began in Y’shuaJesus. We need, on occasion, to take a look at the essentials, the core elements, and see if we can say AMEN! to each and every element. We must not, in our great spiritual holy walk, abandon the core believes, trampling them beneath non-essentials that distract us from the view of Golgotha, the view of Christ died, and the Empty Tomb, Christ Raised, and the sight of Y’shuaJesus ascending into the clouds. Messiah. Lord. Y’shuaJesus. He Died; He Lives. And He will come again. MARANATHA! Come, Lord! AMEN!

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

The Apostles’ Creed

Another important creed in traditional Christian churches is the Apostles’ Creed, first mentioned in a letter written in 390. During the Fourth Century, it was believed that each of the Lord’s Apostles contributed one article to the Creed.

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried:
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The holy Catholick Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed, adopted in the First Ecumenical Council in 325, has changed little over all these years. The following is from the Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer (1979).

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .