Life in God's Garden

How things have changed

2009-01-07T07:50:00.007-05:00

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Hello my friend;

Forgive me for the long time it has taken to return your letters. I have started many times to write to you. However my words were not to be found. Putting thoughts in a letter is not easy for me.I need to practice more writing I think. If we keep in touch and I write more letters this will be good practice.

Life here is very hard now. Much more difficult than last year. Many people we go to church with have lost there jobs. My self, I am without work. I am very surprised how things have changed in such a short time. I look back at last year, our work was good. Friends were happy. The future was bright and safe. Now, the future looks dark, very dark.

My wife and I see, those of us who follow Jesus and trust him alone for our future. We have moved closer to Jesus for our help. The only safe future is with him, as children look to there father for help. We look to him for our help. It is very clear to me the first and most important need we have is to Listen to The Holy Spirit speak to us. This way we hear gods instructions, He will take us through each day under his protection. It is very important to trust god as our loving father. This way we will give Jesus our complete trust and not look away from him.

Psalm 86:11

Teach me your ways, O Lord,that I may live according to your truth!Grant me purity of heart,so that I may honor you

Mike

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Seven Rules for Growth

2008-05-04T19:36:00.003-04:00

"Seven Rules for Growth". I was sent this illustration by Crosswalk.com, who is in partnership with Logos Bible Software, as a free service. If you would like to get a full set of 10,000 illustrations please visit there partner Logos at http://www.logos.com/products/details/1480.

Seven Rules for Growth
A person who is 'born again" starts a new life similar to that of a newborn infant. Seven rules that promote good health in babies can be adapted and applied to a Christian's spiritual growth.

1. Daily Food. Take in the 'pure milk of the word" through study and meditation.
2. Fresh Air. Pray often or you will faint. Prayer is the oxygen of the soul.
3. Regular Exercise. Put into practice what you learn in God's Word.
4. Adequate Rest. Rely on God at all times in simple faith.
5. Clean Surroundings. Avoid evil company and whatever will weaken you spiritually.
6. Loving Care. Be part of a church where you will benefit from a pastor's teaching and Christian fellowship.
7. Periodic Checkups. Regularly examine your spiritual health. Source unknown

Animals in the bible

2008-04-26T20:27:00.002-04:00

It does not mention the two in job, but still this is real good.

Scripture Alphabet of Animals By Mrs. Harriet N. Cook
Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are mine." - Psalm 50:10, 11

The Ant
The Locust
The Donkey
The Mole
The Bear
The Night-Hawk
The Bee
The Ostrich
The Camel
The Peacock
The Dog
The Pelican
The Eagle
The Quail
The Fox, or Jackal
The Raven
The Goat

The Roe, or Gazelle
The Hart and Hind
The Scorpion
The Horse
The Sheep
The Ibex, or the Wild Goat
The Stork
The Jerboa, or Mouse
The Turtle-Dove
The Kite
The Unicorn
The Lion
The Vulture
The Leopard
The Whale
The Wolf

a great trac

2008-04-17T19:14:00.003-04:00

this is somthing i thought was realy cool

http://www.greatcom.org/laws/englishkgp/KnowGod1.html

I found this on this site
http://www.campuscrusade.com/tracts_and_booklets_all.htm

Six covered wagons, and twelve oxen

2008-02-06T08:33:00.000-05:00

King James Version for Numbers 7:1-9
Click to view instructions

Num 7:1
¶
And it came to pass on the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle, and had anointed it, and sanctified it, and all the instruments thereof, both the altar and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them, and sanctified them;

Num 7:2
That the princes of Israel, heads of the house of their fathers, who [were] the princes of the tribes, and were over them that were numbered, offered:

Num 7:3
And they brought their offering before the LORD, six covered wagons, and twelve oxen; a wagon for two of the princes, and for each one an ox: and they brought them before the tabernacle.

Num 7:4
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Num 7:5
Take [it] of them, that they may be to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service.

Num 7:6
And Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them unto the Levites.

Num 7:7
Two wagons and four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershon, according to their service:

Num 7:8
And four wagons and eight oxen he gave unto the sons of Merari, according unto their service, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

Num 7:9
But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them [was that] they should bear upon their shoulders.

I am learning a new respect for the KJV.

2008-01-31T07:56:00.000-05:00

My first study bible was a KJV. All the blank pages in this bible have my notes written all over the place. Looking at those notes is like looking at old pictures in a box.
However in the last few years that old bible has collected dust. My new NIV study bible has had my attention. New notes cover it’s blank pages front to back. My reasoning was for the new bible... I did not speak British English from 1604, I spoke American English from 1995.
This is still a good point. However as I look at how this country, and the world at large has changed in the last hundred years. I began to look closer at bible translations. My focus was on the positive more than the negative. I did not set out to criticize the NIV or the new living translation. Rather my respect for people like William Tyndale and King James I of England has grown.
I have now dusted off my KJV and placed it next to me in the morning during my quite time. I still keep my NIV and NKJV with me for comparison. However my old tattered KJV is my primary study tool once again.

Jeremiah 6:16

2008-01-30T18:29:00.000-05:00

Jeremiah 6:16 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain
16Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

A church that practices discipline.

2008-01-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

I do not have much patience to read, thinking I am not alone in this problem, what I have done here is pasted a few excerpts from a fascinating article about Pastor Jason Burrick of Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan.
Banned From Church
By ALEXANDRA ALTER January 18, 2008; Page W1
On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers settled into the pews at Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan, Pastor Jason Burrick took his cellphone and dialed 911. When a dispatcher answered, the preacher said a former member was in the sanctuary. "And we need to, um, have her out A.S.A.P."
Half an hour later, 71-year-old Karolyn Caskey, a church member for nearly 50 years who had taught Sunday school and regularly donated 10% of her pension, was led out by a state trooper and a county sheriff's officer. One held her purse and Bible. The other put her in handcuffs. (Listen to the 911 call)
The charge was trespassing, but Mrs. Caskey's real offense, in her pastor's view, was spiritual. Several months earlier, when she had questioned his authority, he'd charged her with spreading "a spirit of cancer and discord" and expelled her from the congregation. "I've been shunned", she says.
Gossip and Slander
Her expulsion came as a shock to some church members. In August 2006, the pastor sent a letter to the congregation stating Mrs. Caskey and an older married couple, Patsy and Emmit Church, had been removed for taking "action against the church and your preacher." The pastor, Mr. Burrick, told congregants the three were guilty of gossip, slander and idolatry and should be shunned, according to several former church members.
"People couldn't believe it," says Janet Biggs, 53, a former church member who quit the congregation in protest.

The conflict had been brewing for months. Shortly after the church hired Pastor Burrick in 2005 to help revive the congregation, which had dwindled to 12 members, Mrs. Caskey asked him to appoint a board of deacons to help govern the church, a tradition outlined in the church's charter. Pastor Burrick said the congregation was too small to warrant deacons. Mrs. Caskey pressed the issue at the church's quarterly business meetings and began complaining that Pastor Burrick was not following the church's bylaws. "She's one of the nicest, kindest people I know," says friend and neighbor Robert Johnston, 69, a retired cabinet maker. "But she won't be pushed around."
Karolyn Caskey reads her Bible.
In April 2006, Mrs. Caskey received a stern letter from Pastor Burrick. "This church will not tolerate this spirit of cancer and discord that you would like to spread," it said. Mrs. Caskey, along with Mr. and Mrs. Church, continued to insist that the pastor follow the church's constitution.

In August, she received a letter from Pastor Burrick that said her failure to repent had led to her removal. It also said he would not write her a transfer letter enabling her to join another church, a requirement in many Baptist congregations, until she had "made things right here at Allen Baptist."

She went to Florida for the winter, and when she returned to Michigan last June, she drove the two miles to Allen Baptist as usual. A church member asked her to leave, saying she was not welcome, but Mrs. Caskey told him she had come to worship and asked if they could speak after the service. Twenty minutes into the service, a sheriff's officer was at her side, and an hour later, she was in jail.
"It was very humiliating," says Mrs. Caskey, who worked for the state of Michigan for 25 years before retiring from the Department of Corrections in 1992. "The other prisoners were surprised to see a little old lady in her church clothes. One of them said, 'You robbed a church?' and I said, 'No, I just attended church.' "
Word quickly spread throughout Allen, a close-knit town of about 200 residents. Once a thriving community of farmers and factory workers, Allen consists of little more than a strip of dusty antiques stores. Mr. and Mrs. Church, both in their 70s, eventually joined another Baptist congregation nearby.
About 25 people stopped attending Allen Baptist Church after Mrs. Caskey was shunned, according to several former church members.
Current members say they support the pastor's actions, and they note that the congregation has grown under his leadership. The simple, white-washed building now draws around 70 people on Sunday mornings, many of them young families. "He's a very good leader; he has total respect for the people," says Stephen Johnson, 66, an auto parts inspector, who added that Mr. Burrick was right to remove Mrs. Caskey because "the Bible says causing discord in the church is an abomination."
Mrs. Caskey went back to the church about a month after her arrest, shortly after the county prosecutor threw out the trespassing charge. More than a dozen supporters gathered outside, some with signs that read "What Would Jesus Do?" She sat in the front row as Mr. Burrick preached about "infidels in the pews," according to reports from those present.
Once again, Mrs. Caskey was escorted out by a state trooper and taken to jail, where she posted the $62 bail and was released. After that, the county prosecutor dismissed the charge and told county law enforcement not to arrest her again unless she was creating a disturbance.
In the following weeks, Mrs. Caskey continued to worship at Allen Baptist. Some congregants no longer spoke to her or passed the offering plate, and some changed seats if she sat next to them, she says.
Mr. Burrick repeatedly declined to comment on Mrs. Caskey's case, calling it a "private church matter." He did say that while the church does not "blacklist" anyone, a strict reading of the Bible requires pastors to punish disobedient members. "A lot of times, flocks aren't willing to submit or be obedient to God," he said in an interview before a Sunday evening service.

"If somebody is not willing to be helped, they forfeit their membership."

Since Mrs. Caskey's second arrest last July, the turmoil at Allen Baptist has fizzled into an awkward stalemate. Allen Baptist is an independent congregation, unaffiliated with a church hierarchy that might review the ouster. Supporters have urged Mrs. Caskey to sue to have her membership restored, but she says the matter should be settled in the church. Mr. Burrick no longer calls the police when Mrs. Caskey shows up for Sunday services.
Since November, Mrs. Caskey has been attending a Baptist church near her winter home in Tavares, Fla. She plans to go back to Allen Baptist when she returns to Michigan this spring.

"I don't intend to abandon that church," Mrs. Caskey says. "I feel like I have every right to be there".
Write to Alexandra Alter at alexandra.alter@wsj.com

I want to jump in and say who’s side I am on. However, I really want to understand what God’s word has to say about this. My wife and I talk about church discipline often. Here is a snapshot of our discussions with some verses we have considered;

sorry;
It is much easier to discuss things than it is to write them down… to be continued.

Some words and concepts that are new to me, new as of 1/08.

2008-01-22T07:24:00.000-05:00

1. God-fearing home economy

2. involuntary servitude to the Federal Reserve dollar

3. Americans, and the world, hold education and knowledge in higher esteem than wisdom

4. Banned From Church

5. Liberty Dollar

6. Hammered dulcimer or santur

7. restorative forestry movement

8. God’s law was given to fallen man for him to prosper and succeed

9. Moravian Church
Moravian Church

10.thinking multi-generationally

11 Biblical worldview

11. Frankly, most modern Christians do not know the extent of their bondage to the industrialized culture.

The list goes on and on and on......

Halve a nice day.

Bible study

2008-01-18T09:23:00.001-05:00

Now that I have this blog, I thought I would put a few bible study tools in here. I know nothing of blogging; however, I am fascinated in the different way’s Blogg’s can be tweaked.
The example below is using the Blue Letter Bible verse tool. You can chase the rabbit all day from just one verse.
Here is how to find an audio clip of a very down to earth paster John Vernon McGee

1/ select a book; I like 1 peter
2/ select a chapter, try chapter 1
3/ check the “all verses” box
4/ Do not check the “show strongs numbers” box (for this example}
5/ Click “get verses”
6/ Scroll down to “1PE 1:5” link
7/ click the “1Pe 1:5” link
Ok…this is were it gets good.
8/ click the arrow in the drop down box
9/ scroll up to “John Vernon McGee 1 Peter 1:5
10/ click go……
11/ Scroll down to row highlighted in blue to view Audio/Video for 1Pe 1:5
12/ click stream
That’s it…hope you enjoy it.

Family chores

2008-01-16T10:15:00.000-05:00

Thank you Danman for this idea.
Ok maybe I need to get a life, but I think hanging cloths outside is a very big deal indeed. I have strong feeling’s about getting out from under the thumb of… MMMM?…Bills? Well, I don’t want to sound like a crazed radical. Let me just say, we save money by hanging clothes out side.
We simply make it part of our family chores. When I was a single dad with two kids in my charge, it was my responsibility to do the laundry. Now, it is my wife’s responsibility... And when there is a free hand around, that free hand is happy to help her. In a family of four help is always appreciated.
The most important thing we gained is it bring’s our family closer together. There is something about helping each other doing chores that helps us feel needed. Don’t ask me why. Cuz, I don’t know.
I used a small 3/16” cable around 30 feet long, it has green plastic around it. Secured it with two small U bolt’s on each tree and that’s it. We find the wooden clothes pins work best. We tried plastic but before long they broke.

God’s hand be with you and your family.

chicken plucking day

2008-01-11T14:38:00.000-05:00

What an awesome morning!
The sky is blue, the air has that “it rained all night” feel to it. A perfect day to drop a few trees for fire wood and cull a few chickens.
Two years ago we bought the meat egg combo from McMurray hatchery . They have great peep’s. our birds however, never seemed to lay that well. Mostly because we had a few thing’s to learn about raising chickens. Like, witch were the egg layers and witch was the meat birds?
I guess now that there two years old and not laying egg’s that makes them meat birds.
Any way plucking day is a family affair. My son gets the fire going in the back, to boil the water. I sharpen the hatchet and knife. Later after we fill an clean bucket with the boiling water we go back for a chicken.
To date the easiest way is to chop its head off and hang by the legs from a tree. I do this myself, I feel the boy don’t need to see that part yet.
Anyway, he catches a bird for me and heads up to the house to tend the fire. I like to keep some water on the fire so we can change out the cooling dirty water with some fresh hot water for each bird we cull.
I don’t like killing chickens. Its never a pleasant job. Our birds get cared for far better than the commercial birds you get in the grocery store. So to kill them is always a hard thing for me.
The plucking goes like this; I take the headless bird and dip it in the hot water for some time. Take it by the feet and sit it on the table and start plucking. The feathers come out real easy. If they don’t… soak the bird longer or get hotter water.
If the fire is going well my son will help me pluck. We keep the feathers. Never waist nothing on a farm.
After the carcass is plucked I take it over to the fire and singe the skin a little. My wife likes it that way, this burns away the little feathers you cant pluck or scarcely see.
Now the carcass goes to my wife. Our daughter helps clean and cut the bird up. My wife likes to cook. So she knows best how to gut the bird and what she wants to keep.
As they do there job my son and I go again and do ours.
that’s plucking day for us. Love to hear how your plucking days go.

My first post

2008-01-10T05:47:00.000-05:00

I learned a new word recently; Agrarian. I looked it up on Wikki and found i Identify with most all there beliefs. i say most because i dont like lables and dont want to get into a debate on the finer details of this title.