Off to Work

Before I get dressed and ready for work, here is Psalm 11, that I read this morning:

Psa 11:1 To the choirmaster. Of David. In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, "Flee like a bird to your mountain,
Psa 11:2 for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
Psa 11:3 if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
Psa 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD's throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
Psa 11:5 The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
Psa 11:6 Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
Psa 11:7 For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

I highlighted Psalm 11:3. That phrase means "what do the righteous do when everything falls apart, all the foundations of civilization and government fall apart", according to my ESV Study Bible (my own words of what I read there). It makes sense to me, and is quite apropos in these days of history that we are living in.

The answer to the question? Psalm 11:4-7. The Lord is the REAL foundation and He remains in place unmoved by the failures of men and their organizations. That is who the righteous (the believer) looks to - the Lord who sees all, knows all and who loves His children.

My Wounded Friend

I have a blog friend whom I read every day, every post that she writes. She is one of my absolute favorite blogs because she is a wonderful testimony for faith in Christ under pressure. Christians can write all day long about what they believe, but when the rubber hits the road, I want to read the words of someone who has already been down the road of suffering ahead of me - and is Victorious in Christ!! Someone who reflects Christ more every day in her attitude and in the witness of her blog.

The blog I am talking about is Coffee, Tea, Books and Me. Recently, the writer of this blog posted one of her "stock up the pantry" entries. The point is that times are economically hard and getting harder, especially for those on fixed incomes or very low incomes. This lady is in that position and continues to persevere beautifully under the load. She has pitifully little to stock up with - as in, money, to buy those items one needs extra of, so that when prices go up and up, you have enough of that item to keep you and your family for a while.

She and her husband have visited area food banks to supplement their food needs, something she may have to do more of in the future, as they are on a very low fixed income.

Because her blog is meant to be a comforting, loving place, she does not give every detail of her life, so she doesn't mention how dire their circumstances are at times. If you have any discernment at all, read between the lines, and you'll have an idea of what this lady is up against. I have been reading her blog for a couple of years now, and every once in a while, some nasty self-righteous person visits and posts a judgemental, accusing, hurtful comment. Usually these people are named, "Anonymous", since they have probably only visited once or twice. Blogs are very personal things. If you don't like what someone says on a blog, don't read it and - for heaven's sake - don't post comments there.

Today's Bible Reading

I don't have to work until late today - I go in at 11:00AM. That gives me plenty of time to soak in the beautiful, cool morning sun (we had a reinforcing cold front last night that brought the pre-sunrise temperatures here to the 40's). My computer is in front of a window that looks out towards the southeast, so the sun comes pouring in, shedding it's clear light on my pink and salmon colored Bougainvillea, s well as the mostly green Cape Honeysuckle that Iggy the Iguana lives in. The cape honeysuckle blooms bright orange flowers, but I have to fertilize and water (and I haven't done so) so the blooms are not so plentiful. I can also see purple Mexican Petunias from my window.

The bottom photo is what I see when I sit in my chair at my computer and look out the window. The top photo is what I see if I stand up and look out. It is beautiful, and a gift from God.

Here is a photo of Iggy's brother. I couldn't find Iggy, the original - he had moved since I first saw him this morning. It was COLD this morning for an iguana, so he is soaking up as much sun as he can get.
















Anyway - you may be asking what the heck this has to do with Bible reading. Well.....as I look out my window, it is impossible not to give thanks for the glory that God has given us, even in these uncertain times. How peaceful and beautiful it all is viewed from my little window. I can even see green monk parakeets on the electrical wires behind my back yard. They are getting ready to come down and eat some black oil sunflower seeds I put out a little while ago. They are gregarious and fussy birds. They often get into tiffs over placement on the wire or on the feeders, and when they do that, the noise is quite loud and raucous.

Back to the original purpose of this post. Here is what I read from "Valley of Vision" first to get my mind in gear for the Word:

If you own this book, it is on page 282, and the prayer is called, "God All-Sufficient":

"O Lord of Grace,
The world is before me this day,
and I am weak and fearful,
but I look to thee for strength;
If I venture forth alone I stumble and fall,
but on the Beloved's arms I am firm
as the eternal hills;
If left to the treachery of my heart
I shall shame thy Name,
but if enlightened, guided, upheld by thy Spirit,
I shall bring thee glory.
Be thou my arm to support,
my strength to stand,
my light to see,
my feet to run,
my shield to protect,
my sword to repel,
my sun to warm.
To enrich me will not diminish thy fulness;
All thy lovingkindness is in thy Son,
I bring him to thee in the arms of faith,
I urge his saving Name asd the One who died for me.
I please his blood to pay my debts of wrong.
Accept his worthiness for my unworthiness,
his sinlessness for my transgressions,
his purity for my uncleanness,
his sincerity for my guile,
his truth for my deceits,
his meekness for my pride,
his constancy for my backslidings,
his love for my enmity,
his fullness for my emptiness,
his faithfulness for my treachery,
his obedience for my lawlessness,
his glory for my shame,
his devotedness for my waywardness,
his holy life for my unchaste ways,
his righeousness for my dead works,
his death for my life."

That is so very powerful for the days in which we live. The world is a very scary place these days, but God in in control, and He is my Father, so what have I to fear?

Next, I read Luke 5:1-11, where Jesus recruits Peter, James and John. First, Jesus has a huge crowd following him. Peter, James and John are off washing their nets after an unsuccessful night trying to catch fish. I wonder what they are thinking as they see the crowd approach. Jesus sees their two boats and asks Peter to take Him out a little ways from land in the boat, which Peter does. So there is Peter sitting in the boat with Jesus, as Jesus teaches the huge crowd - giving the Gospel message which at that time still included the possibility that the Jews would accept their Messiah right then and there (although God knew they would not, but it was offered anyway). Peter must be sitting back, listening to the whole thing, and he is believing. The crowd must be jealous a little because Peter gets to be so close to Jesus during this entire teaching - right in the boat with Him. (Of course I always picture a small canoe sized boat, but that wouldn't be accurate if they are trying to bring in a net's haul of fish, so it must be some size larger than that for sure!)

When Jesus is done teaching, he doesn't get back out of the boat. He addresses Peter - He suggests that Peter take the boat out into the deep part of the lake and let down the nets. Peter calls Him "Master" and lets Him know that they had no luck the night before, but because He has asked it, Peter does it. Of course, you know what happened next. The nets filled with so many fish that Peter had to signal James and John on the shore to get in their boat and come out to help him haul the nets up. I'm sure Jesus helped them, too - pulling and tugging on the huge haul of fish.

When Peter saw what had happened and knew Jesus had made it happen, he acknowledged Him as Lord and Messiah. Jesus had his first disciples, and He calmly told them, "Don't worry, now you'll be fishers of men." (not literal - my wording). And the last words in Luke 5:11? "And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him."

Everything. That was it - no more fishing. He caught Peter, John and James hook, line and sinker, so to speak. I wonder what Peter's wife thought of all this. Remember when Jesus cures Peter's mother in law of a fever? So Peter was married. Just put yourself in her shoes - how will they pay their bills, raise their children (if there were any)? Once she met Him, I bet she understood completely. At least I hope so.

And that's my Bible reading for today. I'm off to get dressed and go to work now - where I will need to apply that prayer from "Valley of Vision" at the beginning of my post. I have a great job, but I need Him every minute of every day.
















By the way - this is a cape honeysuckle flower. I think Iggy is eating them.

Funny Lizard Story

Our internet went down. We have Comcast wireless and our modem is over 4 years old, so we wonder if the modem is losing it sometimes. Also, from where the cable wire enters the house, there are several splitters, so that may be an issue too.

What we did NOT count on was a lizard, a baby iguana, to be exact. It was 7:00PM, and I was ready to relax and spend some time on the internet. My sister called me and wanted me to view a web page she had made, but the internet was sooooooo slooooow, like the Slowskis times 10. I tried restarting my computer, since the first law of Technology Repair is restart. That didn't help; in fact, the modem "online" light just kept blinking and I could now get NO internet at all.

I got to work. I put on my sandals and grabbed a flashlight and went outside to the back yard where the cable wire (we have Comcast) comes from the telephone pole to our house and then the splitter insanity begins. There is a splitter on the outside of the house. The wire goes into the back room, formerly the garage, and outside it splits off, and the new wire heads for the bedroom on the opposite end of the house. It travels up over the screened in porch and then travels along the underside of the roof to a hole in the wall and into my inner sanctum - the bedroom at the other end of the ersatz garage.

I trundled outside to see if any branches from our many overgrown bushes were infringing upon the precious life-bringing internet wire, but I saw none on the old garage side. As I moved to the side where my bedroom/inner sanctum is, I shone the flashlight on the wire and......what is this?? A baby iguana was draped and balanced on top of the wire, fast asleep, his exquisite greenness limp and his eyes closed (or what passes for eyelids on lizards were closed over his eyes). I saw this guy first on Saturday of this past weekend and tried to catch him then.

I'm an animal and nature lover. I just wanted to hold him for a moment - to admire him up close, let my husband photograph him and then let him go. But on Saturday, he was too fast - and I could not catch him.

However, at night, the power is on my side since lizards aren't great at night time sight. I touched this iggy's back claw and he didn't even wake up. I wondered if he was dead, but when I persevered in touching him, he opened his eyes and moved forward a bit, disoriented at what could be attacking him at night.

I was able to reach up and grasp him about the midsection and - I had achieved my goal - I was holding the baby iggy.

Here is one of the pictures my husband took. I was so proud of myself, went right onto the porch and called Hubby so he could rush to get the camera and photo my Iggy boy.

Hubby had been messing with the internet wires trying to get something to work.

Isn't he beautiful? He is shedding his old skin, which I tried to help him with, but when I discovered it didn't come off easily, I stopped, not wanting to hurt him.

All in all - a total win win. I got to finally hold the baby iggy, the internet went back on due to nothing we can figure out - and here I am posting the entire adventure.

I love lizards!!!

I'm Still Here

I voted early, and then went to sleep early on November 4. I couldn't stand to watch the talking heads conjecture on and on. When I woke up on November 5, my husband told me Obama had won.

Along with the deepening recession/depression and the sense of catastrophe that wafts in the air, some days stronger and some days not as strong, hearing that a socialist had won the Presidency of the US was a reminder that we are truly in a downturn in this country. Unless Mr. Obama does things differently than conservatives expect, he will bring the last of the ramparts down around our ears.

That said, my Lord is in charge of history, and the US is probably on schedule for an a$$ whooping, since we don't need God, don't believe He exists and our policies regarding the sanctity of life echo that disregard.

I feel darkness around me at work, where many are just thrilled to see Obama win. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is giving me little nudges that the times, they are definitely a-changing, but not for the better.

More prayer, more immersion in the Word, more time with my Lord - in preparation for the future that only He knows. I gain inspiration and comfort from this blog. The lady at Coffe, Tea, Books & Me bids us remember the grace of the Lord toward His children.

We are in the midst of redemption, the time of His coming is getting closer and closer. I can tell you, I am more than ready to call it quits on this planet and move into the Heavenly realm.

If I have any readers left, since I'm not timely in my posts, do any of you feel the same way? A sense of expectancy, a sense of dread? As if we have put our ear to the ground and hear the dull roar of a distant buffalo stampede coming closer? If you feel the same, leave a post.

Best Bob Hope Line Ever!!

Thanksgiving Comes First

I don't know about you, but I get tired of seeing Christmas merchandise in stores before Halloween. Granted, Halloween has become almost as decoration intensive as Christmas, so retail owners don't want to short one money filled holiday to advertise another. But Thanksgiving? You cannot find it mixed in with Halloween and Christmas. There are a few "Harvest" decorations in stores, but harvest is not completely what Thanksgiving is all about. Yes, the harvest had come in for the Pilgrims and they were celebrating - but they were celebrating God's care of them by thanking Him en masse for all His provision.

So let's concentrate on Thanksgiving first, not just for the holiday, but in our lives every day as well.

Go to this site to sign up and to carry the Thanksgiving First message on your blog:

http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com/2008/10/thanksgiving-comes-first.html

Friendship

This lovely lady so generously passed on the Friendship award to me and my blog:

I love the design of this award, the different mug designs, the warm cocoa or coffee or tea that I imagine to be in each cup. In a virtual kind of way, each day, I share a hot, comforting beverage with many of the bloggers on my side panel listing. We may not sit at the same table, or even at a table. Some of us are in our jammies and some of us might be at work. Some sit at a desk or in an easy chair with a laptop. But, in the spiritual realm, we meet and extend the hand of friendship and caring for each other. I know of some who have transcended the virtual world of blogging and have either met their blogfriends physically, or they have read of a need and clicked on a Paypal button to donate, or have sent thoughtful, caring gifts by mail. The internet has extended the world of friendship in a wonderful way. Where there used to be penpals, now there are blogpals, and my life is so much richer because of this. Thank you Cathy - and all of the blogfriends I have out there in blogland.

Chapter 2 - Sassie and Ninnie

I'm sharing a portion of the book, "From Scenes Like These, Life in a Christian Family", by Ethel Wallace, copyright 1945. To read from the beginning, go here.

Now for Chapter 2, called, "Sassie and Ninnie."

Mother and Sassie and Ninnie had always lived together and felt toward each other as sisters, in spite of the great difference in their ages. Sassie and Ninnie were the eldest children of Grandma's eldest sister, Aunt Mary, who with a large family even for those days, was called on by her husband to leave their home in the East and go to the "wild and woolly" state of Ohio. As traveling was rough and life there difficult, she left her two oldest girls to be raised and educated by her sister. Many were the tales which came from Aunt Mary of pioneer hardships - of terrifying visits from Indians who would leave only after they had been given a chicken or a side of ham or something to wear. To the young woman raised in Philadelphia, it was a trying experience.

Aunt Mary had named the eldest daughter, Sarah Jane, after two of her sisters, and the second daughter, Virginia Isabel, the first name after a heroine of one of her favorite novels, the second after her husband's first wife. When we children were learning to talk we changed the names "Cousin Sallie and Jennie" into "Sassie and Ninnie" which nicknames were their delight, although it was often suggested by others that they were neither appropriate nor complimentary. But so they remained, and were used by all the children of the community.

Sassie and Ninnie lived on the third floor, their rooms filled with heavy Colonial and Victorian furniture. Ninnie's room, much smaller than Sassie's, was crowded by a huge wardrobe where her few dresses hung almost lost in the vastness. On her walls were framed prints, one of Saint Cecilia being visited by angels, the other of Evangeline dreaming of her lost lover.

Ninnie was "a lady" in everything she said or did and inspired in us awe as well as affection. She had enormous gray eyes much too large for her frail delicate face. Tall and painfully thin, she carried herself with a dignity becoming a queen. Such slenderness was considered a detriment in those days so she always wore ruffs and starched things to make her stick out here and there in the right places as she swept through the rooms in her long dresses. Her clothes and person were always immaculate although a new dress was such a rarity with her that I can only recall three. When she went out, even if it were just to the corner, she wore gloves and a bonnet tied under her pointed chin.

It was a period when delicate ladies were very much in style, and almost every family could boast of one who was in a state of decline. All our family even to the distant relatives were filled with anxiety and solicitude for Ninnie. She could eat scarcely anything and do nothing in the way of housework except see to Sassie's and her rooms. Occasionally when she was feeling at her best she would make some sugar cookies which she worried over as she mixed them and guarded carefully when baked, counting them out one by one. She never could go anywhere because she was always laid low with a sick headache the very day she had expected to start. Yet she lived to be seventy-three and as far as I can remember never had a severe illness although a prolonged coughing period in the early morning was part of her daily routine. I sometimes wonder whether if she had lived today when sickness no longer seems attractive and women do so much hard work in the world, she could not have done her share.

Ninnie was a dreamer and romanticist and outside of the walls which she inhabited, her spirit soared in search of beauty and elegance. She and Mother were very close in their relation and would spend long hours in conversation, sometimes discussing things that had happened that day, oftener what had occurred years before. It was a relaxation for Mother and an inspiration for Ninnie, for her life was very confined and uninteresting it seemed to us children. The greatest excitement I ever remember her having was when she went to town one day before Christmas and had the bag in which she was carrying twenty-five dollars which she had saved up all year for Christmas presents for the family stolen by a pickpocket. She was a nervous wreck when she returned home, but was provided with a dramatic incident to relate again and again in years to come.

Ninnie had had one beau in her youth, she modestly boasted to us girls. She had met Thedy Eustick on one of her visits to cousins in the country. He was so shy that he hadn't come to see her, but when she returned to the city, he had written her a letter signed, "With love, Your Thedy."

It was thought dishonorable for a young lady to receive continued attentions from a young gentleman unless she expected to marry him. I can well remember Ninnie's horror-filled eyes as she listened to the gleeful account of numerous proposals and rejections by an attractive relative from the South where innocent flirtations have always been in vogue.

One of the incidents which Ninnie recalled oftenest was her visit to the stormy sessions of the General Assembly of our Church which met in Philadelphia at the start of the Civil War. When a group of Northerners insisted that the Southerners swear allegiance to the flag, the latter in a body left the Assembly and the Church. Although not at all in sympathy with the Southern position, Ninnie anonymously sent flowers to the offended commissioners, feeling that they had been treated in an ungracious manner.

Sassie's room was very large. In the center a marble-topped table on which was a big oil lamp topped by a white china shade, and a huge cookie jar set purposely in a conspicuous and handy position, and a small pile of books on top of which lay a shabby, much-read Bible. On the walls hung life-sized photographs in oval walnut frames of an old and well-loved pastor and of a niece who had died as a beautiful young girl. On top of the Sheraton bureau and sewing table were trinkets which we had brought her from our trips, marked conspicuously with the names of the places visited as was customary in souvenirs of those days. A blue and white Sheffield china pitcher and basin stood on a small wash-stand in an inconspicuous corner.

But the bed in Sassie's room was the most interesting of all her furniture - a huge old four-poster with a deep feather mattress. Every Friday night when small we girls would sleep with her. In anticipation of this visit, she would bring home five big round gingerbread cookies which we would either eat out of the bag or toast on the kerosene heater which warmed her room in very cold weather. Having disposed of this treat, we would all jump into bed and cuddle up in the feather mattress. And Sassie would tell us stories of her childhood or of the aunties' childhood, or repeat over and over again at our solicitation old rhymes which tickled our fancy such as

"Rory O'More courted Kathleen O'Brawn
She was mild as a doe and he bold as the dawn,
He tried every way his young Kathleen to please
But all he could do was to kiss and to tease."

Or we would whisper about a farm which she promised she would buy when she retired out of the gold she was saving in a bag. And as we were to go there every week-end to visit her we would discuss at length what animals we would want. (The farm was never bought and the gold pieces - $140 - were found in a little bag among her valuables after her death.)

In the morning Sassie would rise and be gone before we had unclosed our heavy eyes. She worked in a religious publishing house for fifty dollars a month from the time she was eighteen until the day of her death. She started to the train with such regularity in the mornings that some of our neighbors said they set their watches by her passing.

Sassie was rosy and well formed, with small hands and feet. She wore her hair piled high in bands around her head with spit curls on her forehead. She was animated at home and even in her later years could sing like a lark. She always dressed in black and was unassuming in her manner as befitted a woman earning her living in those days when this was considered a misfortune if not a disgrace.

At Christmas time her room gradually became a veritable sweet shop filled with the choicest candy in elaborate boxes given to her by her customer friends. A week or two before Christmas the first question we would ask when she arrived home was: "Did you get any presents today?" and she would answer, "Come up to my room after dinner." So we would run up there three steps at a time and help her untie the beautiful packages and gaze long and covetously at the contents before succeeding in making our choice. And then the box was laid out open on the bureau to be joined by others which kept arriving up to the very day before Christmas.

On Christmas Day Ninnie would untie her presents delicately, smelling the fragrant salts or smoothing out the fine handkershiefs we had given her. But Sassie would open each package with little screeches of joy, and hold the homemade carrot-shaped pincushion or the lacquered box up for all to admire while she expatiated beamingly on its merits. I say it now although many years have passed since our last Christmas together that Sassie's enthusiasm and joy at that time is one of the most fragrant impressions I have of childhood.

My husband just pointed out that I can scan the pages of this book. Duh. What a dummy I am - I've been typing all this out and getting a sore wrist. Tomorrow, for the next chapter, I will be scanning!!! Hope you are enjoying this book.

Part I - The Grown-Ups

Poem excerpt at the beginning of the chapter:

My boast is not that I deduce my birth
From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth,
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,-
The child of parents passed into the skies.
William Cowper

The name of the first chapter is "The Grown-Ups". I cannot type the whole chapter - it is far too long, but I can type a portion of it:

"The home of my childhood was in the suburbs of Philadelphia, readily accessible by train to the city, but in those days sparsely settled and alluringly primitive. We lived in a big house with long flights of stairs which led from one part to the others. A cellar and attic with dark mysterious corners extended the length and width of the house below and above. A deep porch, in summer inviting with rocking chairs and low-swinging hammock and screened in by heavy masses of fragrant honeysuckle, stretched along the front and one side almost reaching another porch which in September was heavy with the scent of white clematis. The house was set in a wide lawn with rose bushes untidy in their profusion on either side of the entrance walk. Back of the house was a dark forest - too far away to cast the shadows of its great trees on our lawn yet near enough to be an important part of the landscape and of our daily lives.

It was a large family that lived there - Father and Mother, and five of us children, and Grandma, and two cousins of Mother's who were nearly as old as Grandma, and Great-Aunt Lizzie who was paralyzed and required a trained nurse. In spite of their size, families then seemed to get along together better than they do today. There were no two-room apartments or old people's institutions to which parents and grandparents were consigned so that young couples could have their homes to themselves. Nearly all of our little friends had grandmas and grandpas living with them - indeed a family without one didn't seem complete at all. It was a wonderful training in learning how to get along with people. We were taught to have the greatest respect and consideration for all the older members. Even if we would on occasions disobey Mother, we would never think of disobeying them.

GREAT-AUNT LIZZIE
My only recollection of Great-Aunt Lizzie is an old lady dressed in a long black dress always seated in a wheel chair who, on our visits to her room, would show us her poor crippled hand and ask if we didn't thin it opened more than it had when we were there before. She was a godly woman and had been for many years a city missionary. But a stroke had paralyzed one side of her body and brain, and although she could talk beautifully about many things, yet at times she would swear most dreadfully. the profanity she had heard so often in her work among drunkards and libertines had evidently stuck in her subconsciousness and when her mind could not function properly, it came out - so it was explained. As a result, it was only occasionally that we were allowed to visit her for no one could tell when one of these fits of swearing would come upon her.

I remember so well the day when, through the carelessness of a hired girl who had set an oil lamp directly under a lace curtain, a fire broke out in the second story front room. as it was confined to that part of the house, we children were sent to Aunt Lizzie's rooms. Immediately upon arrival, as we were very young and thoughless, we announced excitedly that the house was on fire and she would burn up because she sat in a chair and oculdn't possibly run when it reached her room. Poor Aunt Lizzie! what a dreadful state she was in when Mother and the nurse returned. She did some swearing that day!

When the firemen had gone, and we had returned ot our rooms, we found them not only somewhat charred and disarranged by empty of a number of things. Among the things missing was a highly colored glass picture which had hung on one of the front windows reflecting all the brilliance of the sun in the rich robes of the figures, a picture which had always fascinated us. We learned that in the exdcitement the firemen had th4rown it and several other perishable and treasured things out of the windows, and had carried the pillows and rugs carefully down the stairs.

It was only when we were grown that we appreciated Aunt Lizzie's great labors among the downtrodden before she was stricken. One of her helpers had been young "Sam" Gordon, later well known as S.D. Gordon, author of "Quiet Talks."