Lactose Intolerant Fix

Just when I said I wanted to focus in the things that are lovely in life, my computer decided not to recognize my camera and therefor refuse all attempts to download. But it has been lovely, and I do have pictures to share whenever I get that figured out.

In the meanwhile, I have something to share with those who cannot tolerate milk. We have been going crazy trying to figure out the milk issue. Long before he met me, Gary drank milk form the bulk tank and didn't have a single problem with it. After we sold the cows, though, we started to buy milk from the store and I quickly ran into trouble. His troubles started later, and Mags was never able to drink milk, but I read several items about the issue being the pasteurization and not the milk. Apparently, there is a bacteria in milk that is necessary for the digestion of it, and pasteurization kills it. It is impossible to find raw milk to buy, since it is illegal in this state to sell it and there have been an unbalanced number of undercover set-ups on poor dairy farmers. And we don;t want to buy a cow until we figure out if it will work. Goat milk is easier to digest for everyone, and therefor the milk of choice for those with milk problems, but it is harder to make cheese and butter out of. So we had a dilemma.

I had read (and found) that lactose intolerant people could handle yogurt and aged cheese just fine, and that got me to thinking. What I finally decided to try was to get the gently pasteurized milk available from Frankferd Farms, add 1 cup whole milk yogurt per 1/2 gallon and shake vigorously, and allow to sit for 24 hours. So far, we have been able to drink it without any trouble at all (though it took some getting used to because of the mild yogurt acidity).

Just thought I'd pass that in in case anyone else needed the info. Of to spend the night in our sukkah. Chag Sameach!

Yom Teruah (day of sounding the shofar)

It's almost here!
(camera on the fritz, so no picture of me tooting my trumpet)

My Dear Blog Sisters,

L'shanah tovah tikatevi v'taihatemi (May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year)!

"That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise!" Ephesians 1:12-13



"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name." Revelation 3:11-12



Amen! Come, L-rd, Quickly!!!

Whatever is Lovely

It is easy in times like these to get bogged down with the heavy things of life. So I want to spend some time focusing on the things in my life that are lovely, both as a reminder to myself, and perhaps as encouragement to everyone else. With the garden producing so well this year, the leaves changing (my favorite time of year), and the cooler air calling for the reintroduction of all those gorgeous sweaters, I have so much on which to feast my eyes and refresh my heart!

Doggin' Over Dogma

"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Mark 7:7

When we discuss a church teaching the traditions of men as doctrines, I think Catholic or Episcopalian. I think Amish as well, since a person can lose their status in the church and risk hell for doing something the church has not allowed, even if the church ends up allowing it later (like using a gas lawn mower). But as I am an equal opportunity offender (i.e. pointing out error no matter who it belongs to) I really need to discuss the problem of holding to traditions in the evangelical and independent circles of the body of believers.

First, I want to say that I do not think anybody will be let into or kept out of heaven based on their beliefs when it comes to secondary doctrines. Secondary doctrines, to me, are the ones that are NOT stated as being required for salvation. We see in the Word (Acts 2, Romans 10, etc) that what is required is belief in the sinless life of Yeshua and his death to pay for sin, then his resurrection and ascension. Those are the three that you absolutely must hold to for salvation because we are saved by grace through faith in Yeshua as the one who has conquered sin and death. The rest are certainly important, but even in Revelation when addressing the churches, Yeshua says each one has done things right, but that they have also got some of the doctrines wrong. So if we know no church has it all right, and we know no person is always correct, why do we have churches throwing people out because of disagreements over things that are not about salvation or the working out of faith in daily life?

The first tradition I want to tackle is one I have encountered mostly in conservative Baptist churches, and it has to do with the two words. By that I mean that parts of the Bible are still applicable and others are not. You already know I believe the law is for us because Yeshua said that the law would not pass away until heaven and earth passed away (which hasn’t happened) and that anyone who teaches others not to obey the law will be least in the kingdom. There are a lot of people from every denomination who believe the law has been done away with, and as will be the theme here today, the reasons are more that the church has taught them this way than any actual Biblical commands. But I won’t even get into all that right now. What I want to address is the church that teaches the law has been done away with, and yet holds parts of the law against people. This is called a double standard, or my little name for it, the issue of two different words, as in subjective obedience.

If you walk into a conservative Baptist church as a guy with a pony tail, you will be gawked at. If you try to place membership, you will likely receive a lecture about your hair, if not an actual refusal to give you membership unless you cut that hair. While I agree with the premise because they are applying 1 Corinthians 11:14 which says it is shameful for a man to have long hair. Yet, I do not see the same application of the same chapter regarding women put into force. I believe it to say a woman out to wear a head covering, mostly because the word in Greek means a piece of cloth. But even if the church truly feels that reference is about hair, why are they allowing women (and often the pastor’s wife) to be church members with short hair? I have heard it argued that the Bible does not say how long the hair must be, and that is true, but it also does not say how short a man’s hair must be. Yet I know of churches (especially the ones with schools attached to them) who will send a boy home from an event or outing if his hair touches his collar. Brother Mike, who writes those study books I love so much, says himself that he will not allow a man to participate in church functions unless his hair is within their guidelines (determined by man and based on opinion, but still used to prevent someone from participating in the L-rd’s work). So parts are enforced and others are not?

Well, that’s a New Testament command and some churches believe that men, as the spiritual heads, are more accountable than women. So let’s look at another example. Those same conservative Baptist churches teach from the pulpit that getting tattoos is a sin. This is based on Leviticus 19:28. Yet they will serve ham at the church potluck after services the same day, which is in violation of Deuteronomy 5:5. These believers will argue with you that they have freedom in Christ to eat whatever they like (and the rebuttal to that is way too long to insert here), but my question is then why don’t they have freedom in Christ to get tattoos? Why are parts of the OT applicable and others not? The same is true of churches who require their men to be clean shaven. I have no idea where they get this traditions from, because not only did men in the OT have beards (Psalm 133, Samuel 21:13, Ezra 9:3), it was a shame not to (2 Samuel 10). And Yeshua himself had a beard which was ripped out as part of the torture and humiliation he endured on the way to the cross (Isaiah 50:6).

To broaden the paddle some and not just pick on Baptists, let’s consider the traditions of Christmas and Easter. You will not find these words in the King James Bible. These were not holidays appointed by Yah. In fact, they were pagan celebrations that were adopted into what became the state religion of paganism with touches of Christianity. They were means of worship to false gods, and now they are offered up to the Father. He warns us repeatedly not to learn the way of the pagans, and not to offer up strange fire (he must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, not however we see fit). Yet the church the world over calls these the two ‘holiest’ days on the calendar. But that doesn’t jive with what Adonai himself calls the holiest day, also known as Yom Kippur (Leviticus 23). Not only does he declare that he will destroy any who do not observe it (which he does not say about the other feasts) but also that it is to be celebrated forever. Do you believe Him when he says forever? I have heard it argued that forever doesn’t mean forever in the Bible, but that means that we won’t be in heaven forever, or that He was not in existence forever. Two words- it’s really forever when we want it to be, but when we don’t, it’s a limited forever (explain that to me). So we have told Yah that we don’t think his feasts are important anymore, but we conjure up feasts of our own choosing? Are we in the place of the father that we can do such a thing? And yet, I have been called legalistic for observing what the Creator of the Universe established rather than what the pagans established.

Lastly, I want to look at the tradition of the pre-tribulation rapture (and I'm not going to put the scriptural debate here as it can be found several other places, including in my archives). Those who believe in it are accusing those who do not of abandoning the faith, even calling the denial of it the great apostasy of the end times. Yet the Bible does not say we will be spared from tribulation. Far from it. We are given signs to watch for, told what we will endure, and promised blessings for staying true to the end, whether alive or martyred. For ever scripture that may be used to imply that we will not face tribulation, there are two more promising persecution of the saints. Where they read between the lines that we are not present, I read the actual word where white robes are given to those who were killed for their faith in the tribulation. There is also required a great deal of presupposition required in the pre-trib stance in order to make the verses read the way the supporters claim they do. For someone like me who was raised in a church that did not teach this doctrine, those verses are used out of context (and necessitate the conjuring of other non-scriptural doctrines, like different resurrections and different raptures) and still don’t really say that we will be whisked away before the tribulation. Despite that, I am not willing to claim that I have the correct interpretation because we are warned that no man knows the day or hour (meaning we also can’t declare for certain where in the timeline we are taken up), but also because the understanding of all this was sealed up in Daniel until it was time to reveal it. We disagree on other doctrines as well, but without the anger and bitterness that accompanies the lambasting of those who change their understanding of the timing of the rapture. We are only promised that we will be spared the wrath (Romans 5:9). So why are people so adamant that they will not face anything hard?

This tradition is not truly born out of scriptural interpretation, but of another source. People are willing to attack others as heretics over something no one has full revelation of because they are not really willing to die for their faith. Nowhere in the history of the called out ones were believers spared from trouble. They were run out of town, hunted, burned, crucified, torn apart by lions, and scattered to the four corners of the earth. If the Father did not spare even the apostles, who were highly favored, or the establishers of the early church (who did NOT believe in a pre-trib rapture, BTW), then why would He be so specific to spare the current church? In reality, though, He is not sparing the current church. How many in Iran, China, Pakistan, and India are dying for their faith every day? It would seem then that He would only be sparing the Western church? The truth is that the core problem is an entitlement attitude and having such a high standard of living. Americans are the majority if this group, and they claim their suffering will gain them rewards in heaven, but they don’t have any idea what suffering really is. It is not our own self-consciousness when we say grace over our meal in front of co-workers, or even the separation of church and state in our schools. Real persecution is having your life taken away for passing out Bibles. Real persecution is being forced to choose life at the expense of your soul. We don’t want to face the trials listed in the Word, so we take anything that makes us uncomfortable and call it persecution. But our ‘victories’ over these persecutions feel hollow for a reason- how can we stand before the throne and hold up name-calling as persecution when we are standing next to someone who watched their entire family slaughtered and still did not deny the faith? If we will not face any trials, why are warned throughout the Bible so that we be not deceived? If we are going to be kept from tribulation and then raptured away before anything bad happens, then many of the scriptures do not apply to us:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Mark 13:13

So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer. 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 2:3

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. Revelation 13:7
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Revelation 21:7-8

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:11-12

29...Again

I have been so busy with the garden and getting ready for homeschooling that I have hardly had time for more than just answering emails and checking bloglines (sorry to those of you who have had comments sitting in limbo forever). Oh, well!

Today was my birthday. When I was young, my mother told me that a lady never reveals her age past 29, so the year I turned 29 I told the kids I would not get any older- just yearly renew that same age. Well, since I got it from my mom, it only makes sense that she does the same. She had a birthday last week, and when she stopped by and we wished her a happy birthday (and she said again that it was her 29th), our middle girl said, "Granna is 29, too. Are you guys twins?" We had a good laugh over that one!

I think things will start to get very interesting in the next two months. Either we will see very big prophecy milestones come to pass, or we will know for sure that we are not quite where many of us think we are on that timeline.

We've been watching a lot of dvds while we string the beans and fold the laundry. For those who were studying and discussing the demon/aliens connection, I recommended the dvd Report From Roswell by Norm Franz. In that video he referenced a longer and more in-depth study on the subject called Globalism, Iron Mountain, and UFOs. It is not available on his website- I had to go to Prophecy Club to get it. But it was completely worth it. I would also recommend Bob Cornuke's video Search for Mt. Sinai- Mountain of Fire. It gave me chills. I can't wait until they make a video about finding the shipwreck of Paul- the audio interviews were inspiring.

And now, back to the preparing, including the upcoming celebration of Rosh Hashanah.

Shalom!
Amy

New World Religion?

"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised..." Romans 1:25

Worshipping creation is not a new phenomenon. It wasn't even new when Yeshua walked the earth (read Jeremiah and other OT writings). The difference now is the nearly mandatory nature of it, and how so many in the church are assimilating. Especially our kids.

We have very basic TV, and we have that only because with farming, the weather forecast is essential (though they seem to be so inaccurate these days- Yah confounding the wisdom of the 'wise'?). Part of that basic package is the Disney Channel. When I was young, I would ask to spend the night with my grandma on the weekends because she had the Disney channel. I loved the movies, old and new, which were for the most part wholesome entertainment. I have seen a very sad slide into inappropriateness in the modern Disney programming, and last night was the topper.

In what I thought was just a music video by some of the Disney Channel's biggest stars, teens were singing a song about saving the planet from global warming with such passion and zeal, it looked exactly like a worship service. The lyrics were akin to 'This Little light of Mine' and 'It Only Takes a Spark'. The call was to rebel against the grown-ups who say kids can't make a change in the world by registering your name and pledging allegiance to the planet. The singers were beating their chests, closing their eyes, and raising their hands. One time the singer even reached her hand forward to the audience, essentially inviting them to help her end the agony that comes from being environmentally irresponsible.

It made me sick. Talk about proselytizing! Environmentalism is one of the fastest ways to lose your kids to the world. If we allow them to participate in events to 'save the planet', we are essentially telling them the one who created it is not able to keep it as he has promised, and we create a chasm that makes reconciling what they hear in the pew with 'reality' impossible. Rather than looking to the scriptures to see what will happen, they begin to look to the media. We make the Word a book of fairy tales by forcing it to compete with the popular and the cool.

I have written before about the church we left when the balance of actual Bible preaching was replaced with environmentalism, and the crux was a sermon about Rachel Carson (if you don't know who this is, you aren't much of an environmentalist- and you didn't go to college in the 21st century). Even after we left, we still received the newsletter, and in one 12 page issue I counted 11 articles or announcements about going green, including the whole front page of Notes from the Pastor. Not once was there a mention of sharing the gospel. In fact, the message of environmentalism fits very comfortably with the trend in churches to make all missions about compassion and enriching people's lives. Compassion is essential. Being good stewards is fine. BUT THESE HAVE REPLACED THE TRUE CALL OF THE CHURCH TO GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL. What good is a new well to a village if they are all dying in their sins? How compassionate are we to address the temporal and be silent on the eternal?

This shift of focus is indicative of the world-wide call to address the supposed issues plaguing the planet. It is now part of our politics and even our laws. It is now something we fund whether we like it or not, as our tax dollars pay for much of the legislation commissioning studies to cut down on carbon emissions or reduce the human footprint on the planet. Some very radical environmentalists even propose killing off humans in order to save the planet. With someone willing to die for a cause, it is obviously their religion. What else is man willing to die for except what he believes in? And they are using our children and our churches and our government to make this set of beliefs mandatory, if not yet enforced in practice, at least by criminalizing the morality of those who do not agree. I'm sick to death of commercials where young children have to instruct their stupid fathers (because mothers are protected by feminism) on the new way of doing things from purchasing a light bulb to finding a green appliance.

All this makes me wonder if the one world religion of the last days will not be based on, if not centered around, the planet. There is nothing new under the sun, so the corruption of religion we have seen before will be the corruption we see again. It is also such a prevalent idea that many who call themselves believers are completely wrapped up in it, making the deceiving of the elect very easy to accomplish. We have to fight this religion of Mother earth. If the only thing our kids see is about saving the planet, that will be the core issue in their hearts, and it is not hard to imagine a generation that will have forsaken the scriptures completely for the traditions of men. It is essential to teach our kids the Bible first and most so that they are able to weed out the humanism that shows up dressed in a choir robe.

Building Trust...Again and Again

I haven't told anyone except my close circle of friends, but so that you can grasp the issues we're talking about here, I will (without using names) give you an idea why building trust can be so hard. We got a call about three weeks ago that the biological mother of our oldest 4 had died. She had been stabbed in the head by her live-in boyfriend in a fight over drugs. The person who called was a friend of hers, but not someone I know at all, so I looked the story up online and found all kinds of links to it (it hit even big news sources). They only said she had been flown to a hospital and was in ICU, but they were older articles, and unless they did a follow-up, I had no more info. To make matters worse, the friend asked if I knew where her mother was currently living because until they found a family member, no info (or body) could be released.

We felt it important to let the kids have some tangible evidence of her death if at all possible because of other times when they were left hanging. Many of the people connected to their past have a tendency to blurt things out in front of them. Three years ago we ran into a cousin who said "Did you hear ______(biological father) is dead? Got himself shot. Always knew it would be something like that". We hadn't heard anything at all about or from him since the visitation stopped, so it was a complete out-of-nowhere announcement. The kids were very upset. We tried to verify the story but never could find out if it did happen, and every once in a while they ask if we've heard anything back. It has left a giant question in their minds that has to be answered. We knew telling them of their mother's demise without some kind of proof would just deepen the lost feeling, but because of those people blurting things out in front of them, we decided we better tell them anyway.

It was tough to say the least, trying to be honest without scaring them, and letting them know what happened without too many details. They all cried, though the youngest two readily admitted they didn't remember anything about her or even what she looked like. It was a stressful situation which got ever more stressful when I started to try and find a death notices or funeral arrangements in order to give them the closure I was looking for...and couldn't find anything. I started following what little info I had and finally got a hold of patient information at a hospital where I was told she was still listed in serious condition. STILL? I was shocked to hear she was there at all because we had been told she was dead! Even weirder was when I called back two days later and was told she had been discharged! Turns out she was moved to a nursing home, but even that took a week to find out. So we had to tell the kids that, no, she wasn't in fact dead. Talk about creating a problem! These kids have enough trouble trusting us, which is why I have promised them that I will never lie to them about anything. But to look at this from their perspective, we did lie. They probably thought I made it up just to be mean or to try and get them to forget her. I mean, what are the chances of adults just being mistaken over something like THIS?

And as with every issue, it spills over into everyday life. One of the kids will have a spider on their pant leg and I'll say "Wait, you have a bug on you". But even after I remove it, they have to check themselves to make sure I really did remove it- even to taking the pants off to check. Or if I say "I didn't put the bowls away yet", they still go to the cupboard first, and then say "I was just checking". Now imagine the trust issues after you've been told your mother died only to find out it wasn't true. Sadly, all we can do is continue to be honest Abe with them, always proving that I meant what I said about not lying. And every situation will have to be weighed, because while there is the chance of us giving them wrong info based on what others say, I think the impact of hearing it from a stranger in public is even worse.