A Better Country

   Still the fair vision lives!  Say never more that dreams are fragile things.  What else endures, Of all this broken world, Save only dreams.  Anonymous-

   Dreams.  Hopes.  We all have hopes and dreams...I wishes, you know.  Where else can we live in a perfect world? 

   "In the mid-west you don't need air conditioned cars like we do here in Tennessee." 

  We needed to trade our little four-seat Pinto in for something that would allow us to seat the baby that was due in a few months. The car salesman was trying to bargain, and I don't know what dream world that car salesman was living in, but it wasn't reality. 

In the mid-west we have the pleasant possibility of weather that challenges the body and soul.  Not every summer is 'hotter-n-the journey to the center of the earth’...but that possibility is always there, along with the possibility of --in summer-- 100 degrees temperature, with100 percent humidity, that doesn't mean rain, it only means 100% miserable.  Not every winter is cold enough to freeze a fish's eye balls, but there is the possibility of thirty degrees --or less--below zero weather, and snow up to the top of the porch. 

   "I'm sorry I missed the blizzard," I say honestly to my brother-in-law.

   "I'm sorry you missed it too," he laughs. 

   He had been enlisted to do our 'chores' while we traveled to visit our daughter and her family. On our way home, we also caught a few days at the lectureship at the preaching school my husband had attended. We only got to watch the happenings from the television set. 

  The morning we left on our journey, we rolled out of bed about three o'clock in order to be ahead of the weather that the weather people warned was coming in.  We beat the 'weather' by about thirty minutes (give or take a few minutes) that day.  It chased us all the way south.  Storms and tornadoes cropped up behind us all the way to Georgia.  My brother-in-law sent pictures to my daughter's computer so that we didn't miss the blizzard completely. 

In years past when my daughter's neighbor saw pictures of our blustery state, she would say, “Why, would anyone live there?"  Now she sees a hunting show with snow and cold and, "Oh, she says, that's just Iowa."  As if it were the most logical thing in the world. 

     We missed that blizzard.  The interstate was shut down for several days.  We weren't sure we would be able to GET back in when we were due to arrive home.  During the storm there was enough snow th animals could (and some did) walk over fences into places they weren't supposed to go.  Yes, some folks still say, "Why would anyone want to live there?!" I suppose we are a bit crazy, but it is Iowa...and this is our home. 

  Hebrews 11:10,13-16 "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 13) These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14)  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15)  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16)  But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

"This world is not my home, I'm just a passin' through", the song informs us, and although we are accustomed to this world we should never get to the point that we believe this world is all there is. That is a real problem. People become comfortable here, and they just settle in like this is home. God created a beautiful place called heaven, and it will be so much better there. But only if we prepare for it.

   "Daddy," the little girl says as she and her father gaze upward at the star studded night sky.

   "Yes, dear?"

   "If heaven is this beautiful on the 'wrong side' just think how wonderful it must be on the right side."

 

Experience Keeps a Dear School

No, my husband and I are not rookies. The number of children doesn't equal experience. We have seven of our own children, and we have been blessed with 20 grandchildren. We obviously have a few experiences on our resume.

Some of the problems: both parents are leaving the home to go to work. They are leaving their children in godless daycare centers, until they can turn them over to a godless system of education. That means the children will not be taught even remotely principle upon principle of Godly training. This is our accepted society as a whole, and oddly enough, also embraced by professing Christians.

My husband and I refused to send our children to head start, preschool, and etc. We kept them until we were forced to send them to public school. Our oldest children were in public school until 7th, 8th, 3rd, and 2nd grades. The length of time they spent in public school determined the extent of difficulty we experienced raising them.

HOWEVER, having said that--homeschooling/ and christian education are not the end all answers. Our society lost the pattern for raising children when parents began substituting the advice of Godly parents, grandparents, church elders, for the advice of the newest 'teacher' (Dr. Spock for example). Now we don't have the previous generation to go back to because they are gone--long gone.
We are told by the 'experts' that only 'experts' know how to raise our children. Really?  And how has that worked for us?

Here are some random thoughts that I have gleaned from my Dear School:

*It is my theory if both parents work outside the home they pay almost all of the second salary to support the government.  One reason the government WANTS both parents to work outside the home.

*Know your children--as individuals. Each child is different, and what works with one may not work for each one. Too many people look at babies as blank sheets of paper that WE program.  Not so. Each child is born a bundle from God.  They have their personalities already intact. Study and pray over that child daily so that you will COMPETENTLY nuture and discipline them in the way fit for that child.
*Pray for each child--let them HEAR you pray for them. Pray that they 'will grow up to be fine young Christian men and ladies who will love and follow in the way the Lord wants them to go.
*Do not fail to seize each opportunity to teach Godly principles. A preacher friend of ours encouraged us that when we saw sin--point it out. Many times we see things (ungodly) and we turn away and hope our children didn't see 'that'. For example some person driving along with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth. Don't turn away, point it out, and point out why we don't do such things. Point out how disgusting sin is--why we wear modest clothing, so our bodies don't hang out. Why we don't curse, or perhaps why we do certain things. Teach them precept upon precept, line upon line.
*When young adult christians leave their first love--don't always chalk up our loses as 'free will'.
 I have read articles declaring that there is only one reason kids leave the church. The writers of these articles usually place blame on the parents.  The parents don't teach, the parents don't take, the parents...no, there is more than one trigger for people who choose to abandon the faith.  Ultimately the person chooses to abandon the faith because of  their own selfishness.
*Proactive, we must be proactive...remember children become adults with free will. As parents it's our job to combat the lies that Satan will whisper to them to draw them away. And do it BEFORE he whispers.
*Mothers--support your Godly husband. A house divided will eventually fall. I've seen men who try to set rules and boundaries for the children--and wives that come behind, and encourage if not open disobedience,  they encourage sneaky or delayed disobedience. And husbands, remember you and your wife need to be on the same page in these areas.

I wish we could go back through certain times in the past and apply what we've learned to all of our children, but of course we only get one shot. These are some things that hopefully will help others. Perhaps, you could say--this is for the rookies among us.
 Matthew18:4 "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

THINGS THAT DO AND DON'T WORK~

 The young man is shown rescuing a straggly dying bush, giving alms to a pair of beggars, helping an old woman vendor push her cart, sharing food with a hungry dog, and last of all he's shown hanging a bunch of bananas on an old neighbor woman's door before retiring to his apartment.  Before the end of his day he takes a moment to pray. Along the way several people are shown shaking their head, as if to say, What's he doing that for? That's pointless...


Many things shape our lives. My family was not religious, although they may have been shocked if I had called them 'heathen' in their presence, that's what they were. Their main idea when I was growing up (this is what I absorbed at least) was to keep the Golden Rule. If you kept that rule, you were all right with God and fellow mankind.
                    ~Do unto others as you would have them do unto you~
That was the 'law and the prophets' rolled into one.  We didn't even need to keep the ten commandments, as some people said.

How did that work for us?  Well, I'll tell you-- It didn't work well at all.

I remember as a very young child thinking, There just has to be a better way (to live) because this is really painful.
As Jesus said, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings,' I was less than ten years old and that was how I summed it up. That is when I began to search for that something better.
The following years became a long journey, but like a salmon swimming upstream to where it knows it needs to be, I persevered.  And I found the truth.


* "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; But the end thereof are the ways of death."
  (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25) No matter how 'right' my family thought they were, and no matter how many times they thought they could tell God what he should/would accept--they were wrong. 

The man in the beginning of this post? He found happiness in doing for others.  He was a good person, according to our definition of good.  Not all religions make better people, but many do.  So what difference does it make what religion you adhere to as long as you are a good person?
I've attended funerals where it was a celebration of the person's life. The theme was that the person did it their way. As Frank Sinatra used to sing.

What did that mean? It meant they wanted to do what they wanted to do, and everything, and everyone else be hanged. Maybe the person in question smoked, drank, maybe cheated here and there, philandered a little, but they were a great person that loved fishing (or baking, or you fill in the blank) and now they are fishing (or said activity) with God.
I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry. People have been listening to the devil and his lies far too long. Unless a person does it God's way, when they die, they aren't doing anything with God. All the celebration of that person's life is vain and meaningless.  Being a good person in this life may have temporal rewards, such as love toward others and their love in return, but all of that without Jesus does no good beyond this life.  

John 14:6  "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me."

I could not say it better than this:
 “~I am the way, the truth, and the life. ~
Without the way there is no going; 
without the truth there is no knowing; 
without the life there is no living. 
I am the way which thou shouldst pursue; the truth which thou shouldst believe; the life which thou shouldst hope for”   (Thomas a Kempis, “Imitation of Christ,” iii., 56). 

 John_1:4. "In him was life; and the life was the light of men."
Going home: "Heaven, a prepared place for a prepared people."  Begin the journey--make your preservations today. 

MOSES: WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND?

Exodus 4:2  And Jehovah said unto him, What is that in thy hand? And he said, A rod.
 Moses--a humble man used by God to do great things.

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”--C.S. Lewis


He was named Moses by Pharaoh's daughter because, "... she called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew him out of the water." (Exodus 2:10)

"Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well." (Exodus 2:15)
Born as a slave-child, and one marked for death as well, his status was changed to 'son of Pharaoh's daughter, and raised in the palace of Pharaoh.  Reads like a dream come true...until one day when he is forty years old he visits his brethren and tries to rescue them from an Egyptian.  The Egyptian is killed, and now Moses becomes a marked man, who is forced to flee for his life.  Now he spends the next forty years in exile in Midian.  He becomes a shepherd for his father-in-law.  Does he intend to spend the rest of his days quietly tending sheep?  Probably, but then God appears to him in the flaming bush.  After commissioning Moses to GO bring God's people out of Egypt Moses tries to tell God, 'Thanks, but no thanks".  God will not be dissuaded, and at long last asks the all important question:  
   "And Jehovah said unto him, What is that in thy hand? And he said, A rod." (Exodus 4:2 )

 Was Moses thinking about his ill advised attempt at delivering the children of Israel in the previous attempt?  Did he think on the reply of the Israelite who had been "striving with his fellow" when the man asked him, 'who made thee a prince and a judge'?  Did he think about the people he had left behind in Egypt?  What had he learned in the last forty years, and how had it changed him from the prince Moses, and shaped him into the shepherd Moses?  And shaped him into God's leader, God's lawgiver, and God's prophet...Moses, what is in thy hand?

 "This is that Moses, who said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me." (Acts 7:37)

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
"Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am. (John 8:58)

 "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." (Luke 6:45)
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Luke 12:34)
And today Jesus asks us--What is in thy heart?  

 "But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man.   For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings:  these are the things which defile the man;" (Matthew 15:18, 19, 20)



"Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,
  though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered;
 and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation;" (Hebrews 5:7, 8, 9)


 This is a little difficult to wrap my mind around, to get a grasp on, but...what did Jesus think when he came to this earth not as the Creator, but as the Son of God? How did it change him and mold him into the Savior; the author of salvation?


 "And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." (Matthew 22:37)

 "And that in the good ground, these are such as in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit with patience." (Luke 8:15)

And still Jesus asks you and I, "What is in thy heart?"