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posted by Michael on 10/17/11

Most of you know that I enjoy the fall season. It is the middle of autumn now and we have experienced the joys of reaping what was sown, and drying, canning, pickling… and being pickled (in our own sweat!) And of coarse we are looking forward to Thanksgiving, when “the frost is on the pumpkin” and we celebrate the completion of the year. But it is never a bad time to remember back to that time when all things were made new. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation”. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18

Are you reveling in the joy of having peace with God; of freedom from the world and its pride and its lusts? Are you resting in the promise that He will come again and receive you to himself? Are you receiving the grace and the power that he gives to enable us to do His will? “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day.” Deuteronomy 5:15 Your deliverance from spiritual Egypt is what I mean by spring, for “he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:12.

7 Comments » | posted in Possessing the Land, Tidbits

posted by David on 09/21/11

       It was such a change from earlier that day to be standing on the volleyball court, feeling the mud ooze around my feet, and knowing that there were no more verses required to be memorized before the end of the day. It was the evening after the local Bible Bee competition, and what could be better for celebrating the completion of three intense months than a game of volleyball with the family?

       The week after the competition we plunged back into our schoolwork. However, I found it incredibly difficult to make time in my schedule for reading, memorizing, and studying Scripture. I was surprised at how much discipline it takes! These past few weeks I have begun to realize the importance of being faithful on a daily basis. Even though I don’t have as much time to spend in God’s Word, this doesn’t mean that I should not spend any time at all. Whether it be in the morning, evening, or both, the time is there. This came as a great refreshment for me. So, don’t stop now, continue on, and be not weary in well doing! 

       Like a rocket, the Bible Bee has launched us above the pull of earth’s gravity, and now by God’s grace we can easily reach far beyond. For me, the contest may be over, but the Bible Bee is not! The temporary goal of the local competition has been reached but the living relationship with God is something I continue to grow in every day.

“And these words,
which I command thee this day,
shall be in thine heart”
(Deuteronomy 6:6).

An effective and fun memory passage review tool that I would heartily recommend is www.memverse.com

8 Comments » | posted in Family News, Tidbits

posted by Michael on 09/5/11

Meal time is a time to enjoy the good food that God has given us. It is not necessarily a time to analyze and study the various phytochemicals and antioxidants and minerals and vitamins and fibers and sugars and complex carbohydrates that make the food so beneficial to us. It is not a time to discover new things or to delve deeper into the scientific aspects of how the substances in the food interact with each other and with our system to go where they need to go and do what they need to do. Meal time is simply and beautifully a time to taste and savor what I know God has made for me – not what man has made – and thereby trust that it is just what I need. Furthermore I can simply trust that as I internalize it, all the billions of wonderful things that need to be done in me will be done because God made living things to work that way. To a dead person, food means nothing. But because I am alive, it means a lot to me. I can taste it. It sustains me. Granted, it is useful and important to pay attention to how different foods help me, and to even document it and share it with others, but that is not the only reason I eat. If it is, then the success of the meal is evaluated by the wrong criteria and could actually appear to be an unprofitable endeavor, resulting in discouragement and frustration and even doubts about the nutrition content of the food.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the LORD ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.” Psalm 34:8-9 “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not.” – see John 6. I had been thinking of my time in meditation on God’s Word to be a time to discover truths and find answers to questions and “get insights” while forgetting what came first: how good it is to simply enjoy the LORD, because he is good! Because I had begun to merely look for exciting new information, I was evaluating my time with the LORD by the wrong criteria and the time actually began to seem unprofitable. When the LORD showed me the above analogy between physical food and spiritual food, I saw my mistake. It is the Person; the name; the character; the presence of the Lord revealed to me that makes meditation most meaningful! There is no match for the Lord! Yet this has not always been possible; I needed spiritual life to taste spiritual things. “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.” – Psalm 27:4

4 Comments » | posted in Tidbits

posted by Robert on 08/26/11

Our friends, the Bates, recently appeared on ABC Nightline!

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posted by Donald on 05/30/11

Today is Monday. It is also Memorial Day. And “today” is the most important day in life.

It is the bridge between all the past and all the future—the bud to which the branches lead and in which the blossom of the future waits. As I remember an ambitious friend telling me: “Today is the the first day in the rest of my life!”

Jehovah Himself told Israel that He was the “I am”. Rather than identifying Himself as the ‘I was’ or ‘I will be’ He said “I Am”.

But what day is today?

I read Genesis 1 last week about the creation of the sun and moon, made to “document” the passing of days and years, and to give light to the earth. Since calendars vary from country to country, let’s set a standard calendar to which we can can compare the others and find out what today would be called if we had that ideal standard calendar.

To do that we first set two reference points: a geographical location on earth and a point in time in history. Jerusalem seems to be the eternal center of attention . . . and for time reference we will use the easily-determined spring equinox of the actual year of Christ’s birth, 4 BC.

Now we have the year: 2011 + 4 = 2015

This year spring began on March 20 so we’ll take the next new moon as the beginning of the first month of the year: April 3.

You will see that if we begin at this new moon, one more new moon has gone by since then (May 3) and we are actually about to see another one (June 1). That means we are about to start the third month of the year. But here is where Jerusalem, our geographical compass, comes in to play. The new moon on June 1st may be happening at 5:03pm Eastern Daylight Time, but it is 12:03am Israel Daylight Time and that is June 2nd!

That will be our reference day. Instead of calling it June 2nd, 2011, we will call it the first day of the third month in 2015. How’s that for a change?!

Now comes the fun part. We will compare it to calendars all over the world. Hold on!

“The 1st Day of our Third Month in 2015” =

1 US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Russia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, others
2 Second month in the religious/Biblical calendar beginning in spring
3 Saudi Arabia, others
4 Called the Persian Calendar
5 Other Eastern countries included: Korea and Vietnam
6 In Taiwan, it is the 101st year since their “Independence Day”
7 The Japanese Calendar varies slightly

Many thanks to the Calendar Converter from Fourmilab, in the friendly country of Switzerland.

1 Comment » | posted in Tidbits