Treasure-hunting in the sun

How I love Montana's "Indian Summers"! Clear skies, day temps. in the 50's & 60's, night temps. in the 30's, snow-topped mountains & Autumn foliage declaring God's glory & showing His unsurpassed artistry, the smells of hay & apples & burning leaves... Yesterday, MaryLou & I returned to the Kootenai Creek trail, which we had hiked in the spring. Kootenai Creek was a raging, white frothy river with the spring run-off. Now it was a fourth the size, but picturesque in a totally different way. Light dappled the steep canyon cliffs & golden leaves blanketed the trail, the water & any horizontal plane around. The areas of golden larch/tamarack trees were sprinkled among the other evergreens. For the first time, we saw painters set-up along the trail edge trying to capture the Fall glory on canvas. I tried to capture the mellow feeling of satisfied senses with my new Olympus. (I'll add the photos to this blog if our dying computer will let me. In fact, I took a couple photos of our old apple press when we returned home...I'll add it to the previous blog if I can.) We only hiked 1 1/2 to 2 miles up the rocky, roller-coaster trail. It was a wonderful mini-vacation. It was just too gorgeous!!

Today is similar. I ambled slowly up our lane to the mailbox & back, soaking in the warmth of the sun & fully appreciating the rust & russet bushes. Turning back into our drive-way, I sunk to an all-time low to find a reason to remain outside. Why do I have to find an excuse to continue enjoying this gift anyway? Well, I started the evening chores early. I lingered at the sheep & horse troughs which I had just filled with sweet-smelling third cutting alfalfa & Timothy grass hay. I laughed at the antics of our 8 hens as they each tried to push themselves into the best position to devour the pear cores I had dumped into their outside dish. I even grabbed the shovel - Yes, I did - and started the chore I usually hate...cleaning up the dog doo! Dog doo & golden hair that sheds all over my home are the only two things I don't love about my golden retrievers. When my daughter was 5 or 6 years old, Louis introduced her first outside chore to her. He called it "Treasure hunting". He would try to find more piles than her to shovel up & throw over the fence into the pasture where the sheep & horses freely left their deposits. That game lasted a week or two. Then there were contests of how far they could throw the dog doo into the pasture. This game lasted longer & had wonderful side-effects for my daughter. She developed great upper body strength & won the baseball throw at the Hershey's Track Meet in Missoula so she could compete at State. When Esther got older, she would hurry through this chore. We started to tie letting her do extra things she wanted to do to how many piles we found after she said she was done with her chores. I was extremely thorough today & I'm sure I beat her best low score. I inched my way through our lawn. I almost congratulated Ari when he decided to squat & add a fresh pile. He has become my walk & jogging partner in the mornings...& had shadowed my every move through these evening chores done in the afternoon. I did not sink to rock picking in the field. That chore had been a disciplinary one for Esther. I was treating myself to a slice of rich colored & fully ripened Fall for my memory-bank.

New camera - more photos

Louis has been working at DirecTV for about 6 weeks now. He is past the 3 weeks of training & the 2 weeks of OJT with a coach. Those early 5 weeks were difficult for him as he is not a "Morning person" & yet he had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to 4:30 each morning & leave for work by 5:00 or shortly after. He survived with an average in the 90's on his tests & graded calls. He finds the work challenging & interesting so far. His peers average about 25 years old! Now he has started a later shift more to his liking... It leaves me with most of the animal chores, but that's "ok". We are paying our bills. After getting hay for the animals for the winter with his first few paychecks, (since we no longer have horses boarding here), Louis bought me an Olympus SP 350 digital camera for my birthday! I'm learning how to use it now.

We were given an antique apple press a couple weeks ago. The date it was cast - 1872 - is stamped in the metal parts of it. We spent one afternoon pressing 19 half-gallons of apple juice from Ron Smith's apples. He helped me to get the hang of the whole procedure. Then a few days later, we spent 3 to 4 hours pressing the apples we still had downstairs on tarps ripening from the pickings of our apple trees. I had been making apple sauce & crisps & had given a lot of apples away to friends & family, yet we still pressed 17 half-gallons of juice from what remained. Letting the juice sit for 2 to 3 days allowed it to become the cider that we then froze. What fun! All the bees in our immediate vicinity gorged themselves on the juice & apple mash. The horses & sheep loved the mash, gobbling it as fast as I could place it in their troughs. One bee did sting me, though it could have been worse, since a swarm of them surrounded Ron & I as we worked the press. A couple of the wooden parts broke during the last pressings, so Ron plans to find some hard maple to replace some of the wooden sections this winter. Now I am finishing the processing of our harvested & ripe pears & tomatoes. We've eaten a lot of homemade tomato soup lately!

The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Our Bible

That was the title of the latest lecture at the Univ. of MT. in the President's Lecture Series. My friends, Blake & Karen, invited me to a light supper of delicious pumpkin soup, salad & zucchini bread before we attended Eugene Ulrich's lecture together. (If I get the pumpkin soup recipie, I'll share it.) The Montana Theatre was packed with every seat taken & the steps on both sides used for seats to hear this professor of Hebrew Scripture & Theology from the Univ. of Notre Dame. Professor Ulrich has spent much of his career piecing together Dead Sea scroll fragments, translating & studying them. He also has helped to create a couple of our modern Bible translations. Eugene speaks & reads 12 languages, including French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac etc. I found his lecture informative & insightful & far too short, although it was an hour, with a 30-45 min. question & answer session afterward. Here is some of what I learned:

. The Essene Qumran community existed for about 200 years - 140 B.C. to 68 A.D. - according to various dating methods. The common rooms have been dug up in recent years by archeologists. The Essenes themselves lived in tents & caves around these common rooms. The site has revealed an elaborate water storage system, with attached rooms for ritual bathing - mikvahs. Water is scarce in the Judean Wilderness so this system is understandable. There are also areas for ceremonial meals and for scribal work. Various scribal instruments have been found, as well.

. Professor Ulrich has worked with scrolls from 3 main Qumran caves: #1, 4 & 11. They all contained similar scrolls & in the same number of copies. Most of the scrolls were of parchment or animal skins/leather. One copper scroll was also found. The leather fragments are the most difficult to work with, since the ink is black & the leather has aged to a dark brown or black. The fragments are first sorted by penmanship to get the same scribe. Then compared to later manuscipts to put together sentences & paragraphs. The Masoretic & Samaritan Pentateuch texts were used the most for comparison. Josephus' work was also used frequently.

. The caves were very stable in humidity (low) & temperature (moderate) although the heat or cold or rain outside could become quite inclement! Each of the 3 main caves has a similar library of Biblical scrolls, other scrolls of the period like apocraphal books & some scrolls of writing by the Essenes. The Biblical scrolls were found in the same % in each cave. All the books except Esther & Nehemiah have been found in the Qumran caves. Three books are highly represented by numerous copies. Psalms with about 35 copies per cave, Deuteronomy with the low 30's & Isaiah with the mid-teens of copies per cave. Interestingly these books are the most quoted texts by Yeshua, Matthew & other writers of the New Testament.

. In comparing the copies & in comparing these oldest texts with later texts over the last few years, over a thousand or more variations & differences have been sited in each book. They are mostly grammar or spelling differences. Not even one of the variations affects our theology!! The Holy Spirit had to have superintended all the scribal work for this to be the result. Professor Ulrich didn't state it this way, but talked about the different slants in perspective in some copies, yet with an amazing sameness in meaning!!

. Prof. Ulrich handled the ?s very well, demonstrating his scholarship & enormous grasp on the Scriptures & related literature.

God's Hugs

I have decided God especially loves to give me His hugs when I am willing to step out of my comfort zone for Him. I was asked to lead the Precept Study in my neighborhood. Just before we drove across the state to Billings a month ago to attend a family wedding in Billings, Montana, I was talking to the Lord about this open door. I asked Him to confirm that I was to teach & what I was to teach. A couple of Precept books had been loaned to me as possibilities for the study. One of them was "Lord, Where Are You When Bad Things Happen?" based in the book of Habakkuk.

My nephew's wedding was Japanese flavored on the evening of September 9th at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings. We stayed overnight with my brother & his family so we could attend a baby dedication at my niece's church Sunday morning. After the dedication, their pastor distributed a wonderful outline and began preaching an introduction to the book of Habakkuk!! I knew that the Lord had given me His answer in a wonderfully supportive way.
(I am now 57 years old & this was the first time I have heard a pastor beginning a series on this small book of 3 chapters.) Within the next week, I read a quote from Habakkuk in the sedur service for Yom Kippur which my husband & I were preparing. Then a Habakkuk quote jumped out at me in the chapter I was reading from "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn. I told the Lord that I had gotten His message!


Eight women are in our Bible Study group at present. We met for an overview last Thursday. We listen to a tape by Kay Arthur during the second half of each study. The first tape was a message to teens from II Timothy, establishing how one should live in a decadent culture like Habakkuk's, Timothy's & ours. Kay talked about the early church using the saying "Maranatha" - just like I have been thinking all through these Fall Feasts. She also spoke about another saying that became an early church watchword, "Coram Deo", meaning "In God's Presence". The way we can live as we should in a sick culture, is to live:
. in His presence
. under His authority
. for His glory

Of course Kay fleshed out this outline a bit, but "Coram Deo" is a watchword I'm going to adopt as I teach Habakkuk this Autumn.

The Fall Feasts

Yesterday was Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) & the holiest day of the Jewish Year.
This year we learned a new song for the Jewish New Year - the Feast of Trumpets, as well as one for Yom Kippur. The words are good enough to share them.

YOM TERUAH
Isaac bound by Abraham -
it seemed this sacrifice would be,
but God looked on the faith of Abraham...
a ram's horn caught - meant Isaac would be free!

Chorus: Sound the Shofar from the highest hill!
Wake up people - no more standing still!
See the harvest nurtured by scarred hands -
Soon our God and King will reap the harvest from the land!

Hear O Israel;
The Lord our God the Lord is one!
And at this turning of another year
May we turn to see His Son!

See! Yeshua waits for you!
He longs to gather you in!
Oh hear the shofar calling out to you,
that you might know the ransom paid for sin!

You who know Yeshua
don't be silent anymore
sound the shofar to a dying world!
"Be ready for the coming of the Lord!"


YOM KIPPUR

Holy One can I walk with you like Abraham?
Could it be that El Shaddai is a friend to man?
Would You say those words to me - the words You told him?
Holy One can a man like me be called Your friend?

Chorus: Al tira, al tira - anochi magen lach
skhar-kha harbeh maod
Fear not, fear not - for I Am your shield
your reward is very great

Holy One how can I approach Your mercy seat?
Sacrifice & offerings seem so incomplete.
So I dream of atonement behind this curtain,
Holy One will I ever be certain?

Holy One when I reached for You, You took my hand
and spoke to me - oh Holy One, now I understand!
Hine El Yeshuati!! I've seen Salvation,
Holy One, in the sacrifice of Your only Son!

These were both composed in the last couple of years by Steve & Sue McConnell, who lead a worship team at a Messianic group in Connecticut. I wish you could also hear the wonderful Jewish music to which we sing these words. The last major Fall Feast is Sukkot - The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. It starts this Friday at sunset. Beth Tephila will meet at our home on Shabbat, the 7th of October, to help us erect a sukkah (booth) in which to celebrate this 8 day feast. Observant Jews usually eat at least one meal each day of Sukkot in their sukkah.