Christ's Sleepless Vigilance Over His People

"Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age!" Matthew 28:20  

What an exalted and endearing truth, is Christ's sleepless vigilance over His people! Imagine yourself threading your way along a most difficult and perilous path, every step of which is attended with pain and hazard, and is taken with hesitancy and doubt. Unknown to you and unseen--there is One hovering around you each moment . . .
  checking each false step,
  guiding each doubtful one,
  soothing each sorrow,
  and supplying each need.
All is calm and silent. Not a sound is heard, not a movement is seen; and yet, to your amazement, just at the critical moment--the needed support comes--you know not from where, you know not from whom! This is no picture of imagination--but a divine reality.

Are you a child of God on your pilgrimage to paradise, by an intricate and a perilous way? Jesus is near to you at each moment, unseen and often unknown! You have at times stood speechless with awe at the strange interposition on your behalf, of providence and of grace--when no visible sign indicated the source of your help. There was no echo of footfall at your side, no flitting of shadow athwart your path. No law of nature was altered nor suspended--the sun did not stand still, nor did the heavens open. And yet deliverance--strange and effectual deliverance--came at a moment most unexpected, yet most needed.

It was Jesus--your Redeemer, your Brother, your Shepherd, and your Guide! He it was who, hovering around you, unknown and unobserved--kept you as the apple of His eye, and sheltered you in the hollow of His hand. It was He who armed you with bravery for the fight--who poured strength into your spirit--and grace into your heart, when the full weight of calamity pressed upon them. Thus has He always been, to His children.

The eye which neither slumbers nor sleeps--was upon you! He knew in what furnace you were placed--and was there to temper the flame when it seemed the severest. He saw your frail vessel struggling through the tempest--and He came to your rescue at the height of the storm!

How has He proved this in seasons of difficulty and doubt! How often, at a crisis the most critical of your history--the Lord has appeared for you!
Your lack has been supplied,
your doubt has been solved, and
your perplexity has been guided.
He has delivered . . .
  your soul from death,
  your eyes from tears, and
  your feet from falling!
You are never for an instant . . .
  out of His heart,
  out of His thoughts,
  out of His hands,
  or out of His eye!

Go then, and lay your weariness on Christ!

Take your bereaved, stricken and bleeding heart to Him!

What is your sorrow?
Has the hand of death smitten?
Is the beloved one removed?
Has the desire of your eyes been taken away with a stroke?

Who has done it?

Jesus has done it! Death was only His messenger. Your Jesus has done it! The Lord has given--and the Lord has taken away. And what has He removed?

Your wife? Ah, Jesus has all the tenderness that your wife ever had. Her love was only a drop from the ocean of love which is in His heart.

Is it your husband? Jesus is better to you than ten husbands.

Is it your parent, your child, your friend, your all of earthly bliss?
Is the cistern broken?
Is the earthen vessel dashed to pieces?
Are all your streams dry?

Jesus is still enough! He has not taken Himself from you--and never, never will.

Take your bereaved, stricken and bleeding heart to Him--and rest it upon His heart, which was once bereaved, stricken and bleeding, too! He knows how to . . .
   bind up the broken heart,
   heal the wounded spirit,
   and comfort those who mourn.

What is your sorrow?
Has health failed you?
Has property forsaken you?
Have friends turned against you?
Are you tried in your circumstances?
Are you perplexed in your path?
Are providences thickening and darkening around you?
Are you anticipating seasons of approaching trial?
Are you walking in darkness, having no light?

Simply go to Jesus! He is an ever open door!
He is a tender, loving, faithful Friend, ever near.
He is a Brother born for your adversity.
His grace and sympathy are sufficient for you.

Go to Him in every trial. Cast yourself upon Him every burden.
Take the infirmity, the corruption, the cross as it arises.

Simply and immediately to Jesus!
Go to Him at all times and under all circumstances!

Octavious Winslow (1819 - 1878) Descendant of Edward Winslow, Pilgrim leader who came over on the Mayflower in 1620.

True Gospel

A gospel which is after men will be welcomed by men; but the true gospel of the grace of God needs a divine operation upon the heart and mind to make a man willing to receive into his utmost soul such a distasteful truth.

My dear Brethren, do not try to make it tasteful to carnal minds. Hide not the offense of the cross, lest you make it of none effect. The angles and corners of the gospel are its strength: to pare them off is to deprive it of power. Toning down is not the increase of strength, but the death of it. Why, even among the sects, you must have noticed that their distinguishing points are the horns of their power; and when these are practically omitted, the sect is effete.

Learn, then, that if you take Christ out of Christianity, Christianity is dead. If you remove grace out of the gospel, the gospel is gone. If the people do not like the doctrine of grace, give them all the more of it. Whenever its enemies rail at a certain kind of gun, a wise military power will provide more of such artillery.

A great general, going in before his king, stumbled over his own sword. I see, said the king, your sword in is the way. The warrior answered, Your majesty’s enemies have often felt the same. That our gospel offends the King’s enemies is no regret to us. ~ Charles Spurgeon

Object of regeneration...

May I offer for your consideration today a question to ponder over; What is the object of regeneration?  The answer I like most is found in the Institutes of Christian Religion by John Calvin and he states:

The object of regeneration…is to manifest in the life of believers a harmony and agreement between God’s righteousness and their obedience, and thus to confirm the adoption that they have received as sons (Galatians 4:5; 2Peter 1:10).  The law of God contains in itself that newness by which His image can be restored in us.

The Heidelberg Catechism states that genuine repentance and conversion will effect obedience to God’s law:

            Question 88:  In how many things does true repentance or conversion consist? (Answer) In two things: the dying of the old man, and the quickening of the new.

            Question 89:  What is the dying of the old man?  (Answer) Heartfelt sorrow for sin; causing us to hate and turn from it always more and more.

            Question 90:  What is the quickening of the new man?  (Answer) Heartfelt joy in God; causing us to take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works.

            Question 91:  But what are good works?  (Answer) Those only which are done from true faith, according to the law of God, for His glory; and not such as rest on our own opinion or the commandments of man.

"The man who has experienced God’s gracious regeneration, who has been renewed in his Creator’s image, who has responded to God’s grace with genuine repentance, will have an overwhelming desire to please his Lord by meticulous observance of the law.  Herein man glorifies God and enjoys Him forever."  

-- Greg Bahnsen, Theonomy in Christian Ethics, chap 11, pg 234.

My question to you today is, do your actions answer true or false in considering the object of regeneration?

A little earring and a lot of land!

Hi again, I was just pondering on some of  life's little blessings and what they mean to us.

A friend posted on everyone's favorite site now days about how he received a Tractor Supply $50 gift card in the mail. He didn't know the circumstances of why he got the gift card but I know that this is one of those things I like to call "the little things in life".

Most people rave over big things in life like new jobs, new houses, new additions to the family, but how many people really appreciate the little things in life like a gift card, or a little earring on a large piece of land?

And  to this I will start the story:  My darling Hannah wanted her ears pierced for her 7th birthday and after asking her Papa's blessing we found ourselves at the mall. She went through the process like a champ even though she said it did hurt more than a bee sting (she should know, shes been stung twice that I know of)! We gave her the rules and such about cleaning and taking care of them and having to buy her own earrings when the time came, she was just so excited that in 6 weeks she would be able to change them like mommy's. That time flew by and the day came when she asked about getting her first pair of sparkling earrings. I was able to take her back to the mall and we went on the search! We found a card of  4 pairs of sterling silver earrings on clearance for $8 and she was excited. I was more excited that they were only $8 when before they were $16, but she would have happily emptied her wallet.

That afternoon we got home and changed her earrings to the shiny, sparkling pink that she loves. She was so happy that she couldn't wait to show them to her Geemaw, so the next day when they went to Covenant Acres she got her big chance, only that chance was saddened  by one moment. One moment where she looked down in a puddle of water and saw the back of her earring flop into it. She said she looked up and realized that something was wrong and felt that her shiny pink earring was gone. 

She started crying and telling Geemaw that mommy was going to be upset and that she bought those earrings with her own money. Right then the first lesson of money was learned. After Geemaw helping her look for half the day it was just assumed that it was gone. There was a tiny earring lost somewhere in tall grass and muddy spots from when it rained. A little girl was sad until mommy came and told her it was an accident and that she still had 3 pairs left at home.

Hannah was ready to go home and put on her purple ones, but mommy has always had a knack of finding things. Mommy has kept up with three kids shoes and socks and you can ask the family, I've been asked many times to "find that contact"!!!!!  The nagging feeling that her earring was out there (had to be near the truck) was so strong I told little Hannah we would go on a treasure hunt with the metal detector.

Well 3 days later when we went "treasure hunting" on top of having a headache we just couldn't find the lost earring! I finally told myself to give up and I really prayed to the Lord that I would be able to forget about it because those things just nag me. We all went inside for a bit, except for the hubby who by now took off on the tractor to the back 40, to rest.

It looked like a rain cloud so I jumped up to put the metal detector away and the truck was locked tight! My phone was in there so I couldn't call my hubby to bring me the keys, but that was ok, Gramps came to the rescue (with his phone) and text the hubby to let him know the situation. [are you wondering yet where this is going? keep reading, I'm almost done!]

About 15 minutes later I hear the tractor so I went outside to wait for the hubby with the keys. I walked out to the driveway and the sun came out behind a cloud. It made me squint and look straight down.

Can you even imagine what I saw???? Yes, right there in a small dirt pile was this tiny earring that we had all looked for, half buried but still shinning in the sun. 

Right then and there did I praise the Lord for showing me how it's "the little things in life" that also need God's praise and Glory.

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without  ceasing.

In every thing give thanks:

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Until next time,

Eight Great "Back to {Home} School" Articles

1) Can I Homeschool for Free?

"So you're sitting there looking at the family budget with a visor on your head, a pencil in your mouth and a large calculator in your hands. No matter how hard you work at it, there is no corner to cut in order to squeeze out a few pennies for homeschool textbooks. Our family has been in this position before. What does a mom do?"


By Mrs. Bambi, mother of 8, @ In the Nursery of the Nation
Bonus Link: Homeschooling Shouldn't Be Stressful

2) You Can't Cover All the Bases

"If you were to ask a new homeschooling mom what her biggest fear was about teaching her children, what would she say? Nine times out of ten, she'd probably remark that she's worried about covering all the bases. The truth is, no one covers all the bases. No teacher in any school can ever teach your child everything they need to know."

by Mrs. Jacinda, mother of 3, @ Growing Home

Bonus Link: 4 Essential Subjects to Teach Your Child

3) How Our Son is Graduating from
College at Age 18

"The point of this post is to unpack one example of how it can be done if you are willing to get off the conveyor belt and look into all of your options. Once you are free from the culture box, you’ll be surprised…and delighted…to find out what could be available to your particular child down the road!"

by Mrs. Natalie, mother of 9, @ Visionary Womanhood

Bonus Link:  7 Strategies for Home Schooling Moms

4) Learning Disability or Gift?

"Time and time again we see evidence of the beautiful gifts and amazing talents God has given to those who are labeled with various “learning disabilities.” Our daughter, Abigail, probably would have been considered “different” by many in the public school system. Perhaps we would have been instructed to medicate her; or maybe she would have grown up feeling like something was “wrong” with her. But in God’s providence, our sweet blessing is learning at home; and we are watching her blossom."

by Mrs. Stacy, mother of 10, @ Your Sacred Calling

Bonus Link:  Raising Maidens of Virtue

5) Begin Homeschooling With a Goal

"This question came from Allison:  

'My biggest question is “How do I begin?” What is the very first thing that you did when you started this process. With so much to choose from, I can’t seem to focus on any one thing.'"

by Mrs. Amy, mother of 7, @ Raising Arrows

Bonus Link:  Does That Count as School?

6) I Was a Brain-Washed School Teacher 

"Understanding the fact that different kids have different bents has escaped mainstream thought. I think one of the most harmful things the conventional classroom does (by default) is define the “success” of a student by a grossly narrow measure. That’s the only way to mass produce “education”.

I remember when I taught high school, with great shame, giving a tongue-lashing to an 18-year old student, towering over me with tears in his eyes. I had been brainwashed too."

by Mrs. Kelly, mother of 9, @ Generation Cedar

Bonus Link: The Secret to Your Child's Success

7) Give Your Child a Life Long
Love of Learning

"Learning is not mundane and boring! If it is - stop what you're doing, don't give up - there is hope! Here are the basic subjects and creative ways to make learning FUN!"

by Mrs. Hannah, mother of 6, @ Cultivating Home

Bonus Link: The Goals of a Homeschool Family

8) Who's Afraid of Homeschooling?

"Any mother considering homeschooling for the first time will be able to sympathize with the dread I felt of trying to replicate the classroom experience in our living room, my flood of doubts over whether I had the patience to make my children sit at a desk for six hours a day, and whether I was even qualified to teach them everything they would need to know. After all, taking full responsibility for a child’s life-training and preparation for the real world is no small matter, especially according to the standards of the modern education system that dictates that it can only be done by trained, qualified, and certified professionals (which most of us ordinary parents are not), in expensive, state-of-the-art institutions (which most ordinary homes are not)."

by Mrs. Victoria, mother of 7, @ Western Conservatory of the Arts and Sciences

Bonus Link:  Curriculum Advice from Victoria Botkin

Resources You'll Want to Get:

What to Show People Who Don't Like Your Decision to Homeschool

God's Word is the Best Curriculum Choice

A friend, and homeschool mom of 3, calls this book her "sanity".

What articles have encouraged you during this back to {home} school season?

Who is Your Allegiance To?

Have you asked yourself the question lately,

Where are we and How did we get here? 

...and yet most of us were born here and educated in the very system that we stand against! 

Huh...that's right, we are the one's that have been lulled to sleep by the wiles of the enemy, and educated (conformed by & to) the very system that we detest! Disguised as the necessity for mankind to prosper or in my words, "a state of welfare humanism".

This is not a NEW idea and it did not start with Karl Marx. It is a based on Greek philosophy. Read Socrates (known homosexual), Plato, Aristotle, (better yet read The One and the Many by R. J. Rushdoony) to better understand the dilemma, but you still have to ask yourself the question "AM I PART OF THE PROBLEM"?

The answer is going to be you are either part of the problem or want to be part of the solution, there are no in betweens! There is no neutrality you are either a covenant keeper or covenant breaker.

Yes, I understand Jesus Christ is my all and all...He also says IF you love me YOU will KEEP my commandments. Who is your allegiance to? The state or the Creator God?

TEN PLANKS OF THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
(If you think you don't have time to read all of them, read #10.)

Could this be happening in America? If so, how?

Our "elected representatives" have passed laws implementing these anti-freedom concepts. The communists have achieved a de facto FEDERAL SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT in America.
In 1848 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote a book outlining a political ideology, titled "The Communist Manifesto". Marxism's basic theme is that the proletariat (the "exploited" working class of a capitalistic society) will suffer from alienation and will rise up against the "bourgeoisie" (the middle class) and overthrow the system of "capitalism." After a brief period of rule by "the dictatorship of the proletariat" the classless society of communism would emerge. In his Manifesto Marx described the following ten steps as necessary steps to be taken to destroy a free enterprise society!! Notice how many of these conditions, foreign to the principles that America was founded upon, have now, in 2012, been realized by the concerted efforts of socialist activists? Remember, government interference in your daily life and business is intrusion and deprivation of our liberties!

First Plank: Abolition of property in land and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.
(Zoning - Model ordinances proposed by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover widely adopted. Supreme Court ruled "zoning" to be "constitutional" in 1921. Private owners of property required to get permission from government relative to the use of their property. Federally owned lands are leased for grazing, mining, timber usages, the fees being paid into the U.S. Treasury.)

Second Plank: A heavy progressive or graduated incometax.
(Corporate Tax Act of 1909. The 16th Amendment, allegedly ratified in 1913. The Revenue Act of 1913, section 2, Income Tax. These laws have been purposely misapplied against American citizens to this day.)

Third Plank: Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
(Partially accomplished by enactment of various state and federal "estate tax" laws taxing the "privilege" of transfering property after death and gift before death.)

Fourth Plank: CONFISCATION OF THE PROPERTY OF ALL EMIGRANTS AND REBELS. (The confiscation of property and persecution of those critical - "rebels" - of government policies and actions, frequently accomplished by prosecuting them in a courtroom drama on charges of violations of non-existing administrative or regulatory laws.)

Fifth Plank: Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
(The Federal Reserve Bank, 1913- -the system of privately-owned Federal Reserve banks which maintain a monopoly on the valueless debt "money" in circulation.)

Sixth Plank: Centralization of the means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State.
(Federal Radio Commission, 1927; Federal Communications Commission, 1934; Air Commerce Act of 1926; Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938; Federal Aviation Agency, 1958; becoming part of the Department of Transportation in 1966; Federal Highway Act of 1916 (federal funds made available to States for highway construction); Interstate Highway System, 1944 (funding began 1956); Interstate Commerce Commission given authority by Congress to regulate trucking and carriers on inland waterways, 1935-40; Department of Transportation, 1966.)

Seventh Plank: Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
(Department of Agriculture, 1862; Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933 -- farmers will receive government aid if and only if they relinquish control of farming activities; Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933 with the Hoover Dam completed in 1936.)

Eighth Plank: Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies especially for agriculture.
(First labor unions, known as federations, appeared in 1820. National Labor Union established 1866. American Federation of Labor established 1886. Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 placed railways under federal regulation. Department of Labor, 1913. Labor-management negotiations sanctioned under Railway Labor Act of 1926. Civil Works Administration, 1933. National Labor Relations Act of 1935, stated purpose to free inter-state commerce from disruptive strikes by eliminating the cause of the strike. Works Progress Administration 1935. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, mandated 40-hour work week and time-and-a-half for overtime, set "minimum wage" scale. Civil Rights Act of 1964, effectively the equal liability of all to labor.)

Ninth Plank: Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of population over the country.
(Food processing companies, with the co-operation of the Farmers Home Administration foreclosures, are buying up farms and creating "conglomerates.")

Tenth Plank: Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
(Gradual shift from private education to publicly funded began in the Northern States, early 1800's. 1887: federal money (unconstitutionally) began funding specialized education. Smith-Lever Act of 1914, vocational education; Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 and other relief acts of the 1930's. Federal school lunch program of 1935; National School Lunch Act of 1946. National Defense Education Act of 1958, a reaction to Russia's Sputnik satellite demonstration, provided grants to education's specialties. Federal school aid law passed, 1965, greatly enlarged federal role in education, "head-start" programs, textbooks, library books.

Healthy Chocolate Milk {marmy's tips & tricks}

Chocolate milk.  One of the best snacks known to man.  Fill a glass about a quarter the way up with thick, chocolatey goo, fill the rest with milk from that plastic jug and then give that delicious concoction a whir.

So easy, a child can do it.  {Well, the chocolate syrup to milk ratio may be slightly incredibly off.}

But the point is, chocolate milk is delicious.  And I missed it.

You see, when Marmy decided to healthify {it's a word, google it! ;} the kitchen, one of the first things to go missing from the fridge was the beloved chocolate syrup bottle.

"But, Marmyyyyyy..."  came the chorus of whines.

"No.  Absolutely not.  That stuff will kill you, and I'm not any kind of a good mom if I keep buying it."

Of course, occasionally we'd figure out how to smuggle a bottle in every once in a while when Daddy took us grocery shopping.

But, for the most part, I've been suffering from chocolate milk deprivation for a very long time.

Well, that is until this morning, when Marmy introduced her new and healthified version of chocolate milk.