Deceitful Hearts

A couple of my recent posts received spam that shocked me. I even thought, "What am I doing adding another avenue for the enemy to enter into my life?" Yet, I so enjoy the encouraging comments of some of you and like to process my thoughts through this writing format when I have the time. Then Sherry and Carol Ann gave me the steps to clean up my blog. I took those steps and feel better. Thanks, Sherry and Carol Ann! The unwanted comments have been removed permanently.
This process reminded me of James 3 where James talks about the use of our tongues and how our tongues reveal the deceitfulness of our hearts. I bless the Lord with my tongue and awhile later use it to run down someone else or to gossip, etc. This should be as shocking to me as seeing those filthy comments on my blog. Sadly, I sometimes don't even notice that the same spring in my heart gave forth both fresh and bitter water. That should not be!!! I'm asking the Lord to sensitize me to what comes out of my heart and mouth, so I can run to Him with each problem area and ask Him to remove it permanently. Hopefully those around me will greatly benefit by this.
A dear friend of mine, Janie, was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I've spent hours with her, listening to her confusion and hurt. Her life has been full of many health & emotional challenges...this is the worst. I've tried not to be a comforter like those Job had. I want to just be there and walk through this trial with her. Like Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15:18, Janie was asking God why He seemed to be so deceptive? This verse from the Complete Jewish Bible (translated by Stern) : "Why is my pain unending, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be for me like a deceptive wadi, which is only sometimes filled with water?" To understand this verse, you need to understand that a "wadi" is a narrow canyon or valley in Israel. Often these are full of vegetation, but dry places that could tempt you to camp there overnight or longer. That is very risky! If the rains come, these wadis are susceptible to flash flooding that could carry you away and perhaps take your life. Janie feels like Jeremiah did - that life was proceeding at its normal pace, when she all at once was hit by one of those flash floods which swept her into a chaotic, life-threatening flood stream. Her faith is being severely tested. A lot of folks in New Orleans and Mississippi are being challenged similarly these days after Katrina's devastation affected their lives. No matter what the storm & its affects in our lives, it sure adds hope to know God will walk through it all with us. He even sends others of His own to be at our sides and show that they too care.

The Smell of Fall

Louis is stacking hay bales for this coming winter. He created a new place with horse panels next to where the horses usually feed. In the meantime, I harvested the apples from our small apple trees before the bees and wasps ate too many of them and started making applesauce. It's been smoky the last couple of weeks due to forest fires around this part of Montana and over the Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho. I can smell a slight hint of burning wood. Add to that the smell of the ripening apples and the hay. My thoughts turn to September harvests, the start of Esther's school year and all that the beginning of a school year brings in schedule changes. Since I loved school, I loved this time of year from an early age. The tinge of crispness in the air somehow makes me feel more alive. This week-end, Labor Day Week-end, we will spend partly at Camp Utmost's Family Camp...whenever we are not doing something for Beth Tephila. I'll probably have more to write after that week-end. Esther partially dislocated her right shoulder in volleyball on her first day of school. Thankfully, she is fairly stoic with pain, especially if it was connected with her beloved sports. She is an athlete - not a student. Hopefully she can still enjoy the fun of camp when she is not working at SubWay this week-end.

The 14,000 day generation - Be Aware of this Jewish tradition!

Jewish tradition holds that Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh month on the Jewish calendar, celebrates the anniversary of the creation of the world, a day when God takes stock of all of His Creation. Translated, Rosh HaShanah means "head of the year." Jews believe that God's judgment on this day determines the course of the coming year. That day also begins the "ten days of awe" (time of repentance) which ends on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

I have just become aware that several Jewish writers describe a biblical pattern of three 14,000 day (38.8 Jewish years) generations, the latest of which ends exactly on Rosh HaShanah, October 4, 2005. Whether or not anything will actually happen on that day is unknown, but it is good to be aware of it. Here is some of what they present:

There were exactly 14,000 days that the Israelites wandered in the desert after receiving the Law and before they entered the Promised Land. This was due to their unbelief and rebellion.

There were exactly 14,000 days from the day Jesus entered Jerusalem until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. This was the rebellious generation that rejected their Messiah.

There will be exactly 14,000 days from the capture of Jerusalem in 1967 to Rosh HaShanah (Feast of Trumpets), October 4, 2005. This is the generation that rebelliously turned the Temple Mount over to the Muslims after God gave it back to them in the Six Day War. Look at the problems this has caused. I find this connection with the 2005 Feast of Trumpets both intriguing and compelling.

Thus, if the dating is correct, the three most important generations in all history are 14,000 days in length, which is 2,000 Jewish weeks (14,000 divided by 7 = 2,000).

One of these writers by the name of Garrett says, "Recently I've actually heard Jewish rabbis discussing this same time-frame...that they are under 38 years of punishment for handing the Temple Mount back to the Muslims after capturing it in 1967....Because this is being discussed in rabbinic circles, and because there is a Biblical parallel which I was led to through research and prayer, I'm starting to think that whatever is going to happen on 4 October 2005 may be a solely "Jewish" event and have nothing to do with the Church. However, if this is the beginning of Daniel's prophecy concerning the final 7 years of the "70 weeks," that would mean the "times of the Gentiles" is over and all attention will again be on Israel. It wouldn't make sense to have the Church remain with Israel taking the world spotlight - but we will have to wait and see."

It is also interesting that on the Jewish calendar, October 4, 2005 actually begins on the evening of October 3 and there is supposed to be a solar eclipse on October 3, 2005. The Muslim Ramadan begins on October 4, 2005, the same day as Rosh HaShanah. Ramadan is probably the most widespread anti-Christ observance on earth. The Jewish writers are not saying for sure that the rapture will be on October 4, 2005. But wouldn't it be nice? If not, what? Anything? It will be interesting to watch.

Ooops. One little thought. The Feast of Trumpets is a two-day feast. That is because the feast happens on the new moon, which is 29.5 days after the last one, meaning it might occur on the 29th or 30th day, nobody knows for sure. Thus, this feast is referred to by the idiom, "Of the day or hour no man knows." Sound familiar? If the rapture ever happens on the Feast of Trumpets, it will be true that no one really knew the day or hour!

The Feast of Trumpets begins with a series of over 90 trumpet blasts. The last, climactic blast is the "Teki'at Shofar", a long blast, signalling victory or good news. This last blast is referred to as "the last trump," many believe to be the trumpet referred to by Paul in describing the rapture in I Corinthians 15:52 and I Thessalonians 4:16.

Most of the above info. was sent to me by a dear friend in Alaska. The person who sent it to her, Pastor David N. Decker of Jerusalem, checked and there truly will be an annular eclipse of the sun on Oct. 3rd, mainly across central Africa, that will also be partly visible in Israel. He also checked and Rosh HaShanah starts at sundown on Oct. 3rd, which is 14,000 days after June 6, 1967. Rabbis say that in the Old Testament, 14,000 days marks a full Divine Judgement cycle. Ramadan 2005 actually begins on October 5th. If there is going to be any POSITIVE action, or shaking that day...I would expect it to be in Jerusalem, hopefully around the Temple Mount...

Alon, our room-mate at the hotel, has learned the lifestyle of the ultraorthodox Jews in order to reach them and tell them of their Messiah. He showed Louis how to don the tefillin as well as the prayer shawl...It took about 20 minutes for Louis to get it all correct. Our second date on the open afternoon of the conference, was to tour the famous Winchester mystery house. It covered several acres!! This famous house was owned by a Winchester heiress, who had bad nightmares and sought the help of a psychic back in the 1890s. The psychic told her to continue building on her house day and night as long as she lived and she would be free of the ghosts of the people killed by the Winchester rifle. She took the advise and built on her house for over 40 years...sometimes having stairways contructed with steps leading up to the ceiling or doors that opened on walls, etc. There were gorgeous stainglass windows, ornate wood inlays in the ceilings and floors, many fireplaces, atriums, you name it... along with the strangest stairs or windows or cabinets that were built to just keep building. Our photos of the fairly dark inside didn't come out, but a couple that we took out the windows did. You may have seen a TV Special that was made about this mystery house. Well, this is the end of the trip photos that I plan to share with you. This grouping was eliminated by my glitchy computer and another grouping was published a second time. I noticed it when I reviewed the blog yesterday. Hopefully it will publish "ok" today. Thanks for bearing with me.

Back to our hike and the early morning views of the Columbia River Gorge. You can see the slug, but can you find the two chipmunks in the other two photos of the trail? After our refreshing hike, Louis and I had a scrumptious breakfast of fresh salmon omelet and biscuits with blackberry jam in the Multnomah Lodge. You can see the lodge peeking through the trees on the photo of the pavement at the base of the falls. There we met Chris, a Purdue, Indiana English Professor, who was finishing on that very day, a four week bike trek of the Lewis and Clark Trail. He started at Great Falls, Montana and biked over 1000 miles to Portland. He said his companions rode on ahead after the first week or so, since he was taking his time biking and reading several books about the Lewis and Clark journey, as he went. Well, I hope this brief showing of some of our trip photos was less frustrating for you than me as I fought the disconnect problem, but enjoyed sharing a bit of our trip nonetheless.

Two more of the photos out the window, which show the formal gardens and more of the varied structures of the acres-large Winchester mansion. Our third date was a mile hike to the top of Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge just west of Portland. We started the cool, misty hike around 6:30 a.m. and saw no other hikers until we were back down on Benson Bridge at the top of the lower falls. We loved the views, like the one from the top of the falls...and watching the chipmunks along the trail bend over the grass stalks to eat the seeds on top for breakfast. All at once we noticed that we had other wildlife on the trail - slime-covered slugs! Louis lay down on the trail to capture one on this camera

Trip continued

Yes, there I am just before we boarded the "Tahoe Gal" for our scenic Lake Tahoe cruise date. The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations' National Conference was held at the Double Tree Inn near the San Jose Airport. The grounds were beautiful and we had a comfortable room on the eighth floor, which looked over a large part of San Jose. After the first two nights, we shared the room and our breakfast of gefilte fish, matzeh, boiled eggs, banana nut bread, coffee and fruit with Alon Barak, the leader from Desert Palm Springs. He, in turn, paid for the room and a couple of our dinners. What a blessing! The leaders' wives at the UMJC conference toured the Japanese Friendship Gardens at Kelly Park in San Jose. I loved the bonsai, magnolia and the other plants not usually seen up north. The Crepe Myrtle was in bloom- a dark pink for some trees and a lighter pink for others. Koi fish and ducks were in most of the ponds. We enjoyed a delightful lunch which was placed in a bathroom caddy for each participant. There was Crystal Geyser mineral water, cashews, humus with pinenuts to be used as a dip with fresh miniature carrots, broccoli and peapods, a small croisant and 2 multi-grain crackers to eat with a couple of small cheeses. There were also larger baskets of delicious fruit and various brownies and other cookies. We were asked to get a coin out of our purse and look at the year on it. Then when it was our turn to speak, we were to say, "Who we were, where we were from, & what happened in our life in that year of our life." It was an interesting and fun way to get to know each other. ( I am still fighting my computer, which is disconnecting about every minute, so I'll continue this later.)

San Jose Trip

Do any of you recognize this Scandinavian mansion off Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe? Louis treated me to a 3 1/2 hour boat cruise on Lake Tahoe as our first date on our trip. Vikingsholm Castle, built in 1929, was the turn-around point of the cruise. Fannette Island, the site of the Vikingsholm teahouse, is Tahoe's only island and boasts several hundred-plus year old bonsai trees. Our Captain and Tour guide for the trip hung his open testimony on the "Tahoe Gal", a medium-size, Mississippi-type, paddle boat in style. Thankfully the inside restaurant was air-conditioned on this 106 degree day.

We're back to our toasty home.

Our San Jose trip was wonderful!!!! I will give the details when I get a refresher course from Sherry on how to include my digital photos on this blog. Esther kept our place from burning up in the hot, dry weather...but that old fox got our rooster and another hen. We have four hen survivors, one of which has that splinted leg. She hops around on her good leg and balances some with the splinted one. The wild birds left our netted cherry trees alone. The wasps and yellow jackets did not. They left us all the pits and a handful of ripe cherries that somehow they missed. The apricots haven't ripened yet. We are very tempted to pick them green so we, rather than the insects, get to enjoy the crop. The raspberries are ripening quickly in the 90 degree days. Some have actually made it to our freezer instead of our stomachs. We are starting to harvest a variety of lettuces, spinach, peas, green beans, beets, onions, yellow crooked-neck squash and zucchini with no competition from the critters. We love to share our produce, so if you read this and would like some, let us know.
Last week was a catch-up week and the week of Esther's teeth implant surgery. Other than some expected oozing of blood post-op, all has gone extremely well. Esther even started her new job at the Subway, with two tiny metal posts sticking through her gums in the place of her retainer's fake teeth. Permanent crowns will be attached to the posts when they begin to ossify into the bone and are therefore more stable. We are so blessed to have had a safe trip, ample harvest and a good recovery for Esther.

Weeds in my Garden

Nearly every morning I spend 3 or more hours on my knees. I know you think that implies I'm a real prayer warrier. Oh, how I wish that were true. I am learning to pray more for Louis and Esther, using Stormie's "The Power of a Praying Wife" & "The Power of a Praying Parent" as my guide...however, I am often praying and weeding in my garden or strawberry bed concurrently. Some days I am just weeding and thinking how my life is also chocked full of weeds and grass with extra deep roots. I use a dandelion digger to help me unearth those deep roots in the garden. I also like to weed when I have watered the area earlier, so the pulling comes easier. Watering my life with the Word and then confessing the sins the Holy Spirit points out certainly prevents me from becoming too jungle-like.
Now I will get more than a week's weeding break as we drive to San Jose. The cherries on our cherry trees should be ripe for picking and our raspberries will be coming on, as well, when we return. Louis and I spent much of an afternoon covering our two Bing cherry trees with netting so the Robins and Finches in our yard could only snatch the outer ripe cherries as they land or fly-by. Hopefully the rest will remain until a little over a week from now. The wasps, as usual, have shown up to eat their fill of the strawberry patch and fruit on our trees. They even eat a good portion of our apples, if we don't find their hives and spray them. This year we are checking regularly under the eaves, etc. as our cherry trees and apricot tree promise some great fruit. The enemy is likened in at least one of the Lord's parables to birds that come to nest and pick fruit. We are reminded of that parable each summer... especially as the dry, 90 degree weather speeds along the growth and ripening. Louis bought a pellet gun to practice on those pesky birds and to sting the fox that has taken such a liking to our chickens. We have two traps set for the fox, but so far have only managed to snag the leg of one of the remaining five laying hens!! Louis constructed a splint of popsicle sticks and 2x2 gauze pad and tape for that poor hen. Her desperate squawking when her leg was caught in the trap brought us all running, thinking the fox had returned and gotten another meal. The other bandits in the strawberry bed are our squirrels. Thankfully we always have enough strawberries for them, the birds, the wasps and us. Our electric fencing seems to keep the deer away. They visit our neighbors, so we still get to watch these graceful creatures without having to shoo them away from our harvests. The sheep and horses always come to beg for the grass and weeds I throw over the fencing to them. I am more motivated to keep at my task since I can weed, pray, and feed our animals all at the same time.

Tempus Fugit when you're having fun

A month has flown by since my last post. Esther & I have been back home with Louis for most of that time. We are continuing family counseling and enjoying the blessings that flow from work on our relationships. I am especially loving the "dates" that Louis and I are starting to have. Can you believe this man I married 33 years ago is selling his plasma to Biolife to have the $ to take me out on dates?!! In another 8 or 9 days we are planning to drive to San Jose, California for the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations National Conference, LORD willing. The Beth Tephila Board members decided that I should accompany Louis this year. PTL! It costs no more in transportation or for the hotel room. In fact, the LORD surprised us with a free hotel room through a friend! That will now give us the $ to eat while in the San Jose area...ie. get items from nearby grocery stores and make our own meals most of the time. I will take our digital camera along, so we can fill you in on the trip once we are back home. Esther will house- sit and take care of the animals. We are paying for her car insurance and gas $ in exchange - to her great delight. This last month has included a Beth Tephila Retreat at our home, several family and friends get-togethers over the 4th of July week-end, celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary and Louis's --birthday by seeing the latest Star Wars movie and dining out at "Shadows Keep", numerous hours of weeding the garden and strawberry beds, dog-sitting for two different friends, and so much more. Esther continues to seek a full-time job and was just interviewed yesterday for a position at Bob Wards. In the meantime, she works part-time at the Day Care center. This is a bit rambling. I'll attribute it to the over 90 degree heat outside.
The cooler, rainy June has turned into a hot and drier July. Our pasture is just now finally turning brown. The six adult sheep are now over at Mom and Dad's pasture, while we continue to feed and prepare the remaining three lambs for market the last of July. A red fox has been boldly visiting our chickenhouse during the middle of the day. We are down to 5 laying hens and our rooster, as a result. Louis has contacted the federal trapper, who will eventually get here when he clears up a couple of wolf and bear problems. Time to give one of our extra dogs a bath and grooming before she returns to her owner tomorrow. Jan, Genny's owner, has been learning Braille in Bozeman. Her one good eye has diminishing eyesight. She hasn't been able to drive a car for about a year now. We are so thankful we can help her and that Genny is such a needed part of her daily routine now. See you around.

New Driver & Learning Love Languages

Hurrah! Esther flew through her driver's testing in 15 minutes, the day after Memorial Day. She was even complimented on her parking skills by the examiner! So Esther is proudly driving herself to Basketball Camp this week, Volleyball Camp next week..and hopefully to a summer job once her two camps are over. I'm watching to see how long her extreme carefulness and love affair with her 2000 red Pontiac Grand Am will last. Speaking about love affairs, in our counseling & reading for each session, Louis and I have found that we speak entirely different love languages. He is essentially trilingual in "Physical Touch", "Words of Affirmation", & "Quality Time". I rate conversant mainly in "Acts of Service" and don't appear to value the "Physical Touch" much at all. His other two languages I value moderately, but no where near the top as he does in expressing and receiving emotional love. No wonder we were struggling at showing each other the love we really felt & thought it wasn't returned very well. We spoke different languages which automatically created confusion and misunderstanding in our marriage. Have you read about these love languages, as Gary Chapman defined them in his 1990's book, "The Five Love Languages"? Louis would tell me as he gave me a hug, "Honey, you look great today." "I love you sooo much!" "It's wonderful that we can share this time together!" I would have taken time to make a delicious & healthy picnic lunch, driven the car since his back has been giving him sciatica and checked out the times the event was starting or lasting, etc. We are each using our primary love language and are assuming the other person is fully appreciating how much we love him/her. Multiply this by 33 years. I am wondering why Louis never "backs up" those hugs and words with completion of little tasks around the house that I asked if he could do months or years ago. I wonder if those hugs and words are meaningless since that is how they feel to me. He is wondering why he is always the initiator in holding hands or hugging, suggesting an event we can attend together, or saying those affirming words. I often catch on and respond, but never seem to think to express my love that way. We both end up feeling like the other is not really that loving of a spouse. You never speak different languages with your spouse, do you? Maybe "giving gifts" is one of your languages. That is not high on either Louis or my expression list. Anyway, we are learning these things now and starting to attempt speaking each other's languages. Stay tuned.

Your Suzie Homemaker Tip of the Day

When we were first given a computer by friends who upgraded theirs, I would read all the e-mail chatter. You know, the warm-fuzzy stories, the scary potential harmful things we ate, drank or wear, and all the tips. After several months I decided I didn't have time for all of these e-mails, which tended to recycle through in slightly different formats. Now, once-in-a-while a tip does catch my attention as worth the reading and implementing in my life. Here is one of them, which I will quote:
I had a wonderful morning, the heating unit went out on my dryer! Why does everything seem to fall apart this time of year!?? The guy that fixes things went into the dryer & pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. We always clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes. He told us that he wanted to show us something. He took the filter over to the sink & ran hot water over it. Now, the lint filter is made of a mesh material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. WELL... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh!!! It didn't go through it at all!!!
He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh & that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that??!! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share. Note: I went to my dryer & tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water & a nylon brush & had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it the water ran right through the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repair man knew what he was talking about.

Brokenness re-visited

The grammar errors in my last post and jumbling of two separate columns in the quote portion reflected my last month quite well. I am glad to get back into communication mode and am willing to try again to be more understandable. Here's that quote again:

Continuum of "Togetherness" (Self- Reliance)

Human Experience -
The normative human experience is success and happiness. Hurt, pain, loss are aberrations which need to be accounted for.

Continuum of "Brokenness" (Reliance on Christ Alone)

Human Experience - Brokenness and tragedy are normative to human existence; suffering, pain, unexpected trauma, and death are the basic givens of life as we know it. Joy, love, justice and peace are aberrations which need to be accounted for. (Note Job 5: 6,7 and 19:7 - Those who are engaged in a battlepoint experience may more easily grasp this truth.)

GOD (Self-Reliance) -
God is the keeper of the "joy gate". He guarantees a certain measure of happiness and success for the faithful. He wants us to be happy and provides the righteous with gifts to keep their lives happy. He brings judgment on the unrighteous. Dark and tragic circumstances represent the absence of God. God shuns sin and chaos.

GOD (Brokenness) -
God enters into the brokenness of life to be "with us" in our suffering and pain. God wants to lead us through brokenness into His way of healing and newness of life (Christ-generated togetherness). Dark and tragic circumstances signal the presence of God with the wounded and powerless.

The Process (Self-Reliance) -
Through a good heritage, education, behavior modification, methodology, goal-oriented striving and religious activity, one develops a culturally acceptable, even admirable, character and lifestyle.

The Process (Brokenness) -
Through failure, pain, disappointment and loss that strip one of the illusions of natural and cultural acceptability, one turns to Christ and experiences His gracious love and acceptance. This undeserved favor teaches and develops a strong faith, an inherent humility and godly lifestyle.

Ministry (Self-Reliance)-
Tragic moments within the continuum of success and togetherness need to be fought and wrestled back into normalcy. Emphasize the positive (formulas, activities and disciplines are instruments of recovery.) Get people back into joy as soon as possible.

Ministry (Brokenness) -
Be compassionate even as our Heavenly Father is compassionate. Be with the wounded and broken in their suffering as a sign of the presence of God. Emphasize the reality of evil and the accompanying reality of God's presence. Weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice.

Witness (Self-Reliance) -
A demonstration of the benefits of righteous living: health, wealth, success and having it together. Shiny people are God's best advertisement. Problems represent a lack of faith and unfaithfulness and are a betrayal of God's purposes.

Witness (Brokenness) -
A demonstration of the power of the life of God to bring healing and newness in the face of sin and death. Broken people who experience God's presence are salt and light. Problems represent the context where God accomplishes His redemptive purposes.

Bless you for reading through this again. May God use it in your life.

Next expected event in our lives

The second week of May some dear friends will be coming for a couple of weeks visit. Their youngest daughter is graduating from the U of M. We are so looking forward to their visit.

Margie & Tom are coming!
click photo to enlarge

Typical Passover Seder setting
click photo to enlarge

Hag HaMatzah (Feast of Unleavened Bread) & Sfirat Haomer/Yom HaBikkurim

Passover started with the Passover Seder on Saturday evening for around 70 people from Beth Tephila and guests. That's down from the 90ish number of attendees the last couple of years. Yet, we had a great time celebrating the deliverance of Israel from Egypt & our own personal deliverance from the bondage of sin by the slaying of God's appointed Lamb, the Messiah. Pesach lasts eight days, during which we eat no leavened foods. Leviticus 23:6 indicates that the seven days after the seder are another feast called "Unleavened Bread". Modern observance has combined Passover and Unleavened Bread into one eight-day festival called Pesach. We eat a lot of matzah crackers during Pesach. They are great with butter, honey, jams, charoseth or any other topping, since they have little to no taste themselves.
The series of spring holy days continues with the arrival of Sfirat Haomer, First Fruits, sometimes called Yom HaBikkurim. Since it is often overshadowed by Passover, one wonders if Sfirat Haomer has any significance in the New Testament. Actually, the holiday is mentioned several times & my personal conviction is that it should be one of the most important festivals for believers. A close reading of I Corinthians 15 shows the vital link of Sfirat Haomer to the ministry of Messiah. As Rabbi Saul of Tarsus teaches the believers the doctrine of the resurrection, he makes an amazing connection to this Biblical holy day:
But the fact is that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died. For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man. For just as in connection with Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive. But each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to Messiah at the time of His coming...I Corinthians 15:20-23
Although many read this passage as a commentary on the order of the resurrection, Paul is actually making a technical reference to the holy day of Sfirat Haomer. It is not merely that Yeshua was the first to rise bodily from the grave, but that by so doing, He is the direct fulfillment of the feast of First Fruits!
The tradition of this harvest festival is to wave barley sheaves before the Lord. Think of it: the grain that had come from the earth was now lifted up high for all to see. Yeshua Himself alluded to His resurrection in similar terms when He said:
The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Yes, indeed! I tell you that unless a grain of wheat that falls to the ground dies, it stays just a grain; but if it dies, it produces a big harvest...As for me, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself (John 12:23-24, 32).
This parable was spoken to His disciples as they had come to celebrate the Passover, just before Sfirat Haomer (John 12:1, 20) The resurrection of Messiah from the dead is perfectly symbolized in the wave offering of the first fruits. The believers of the early Church, especially the Roman Church of the fourth century, began to lose touch with the Jewish understanding of the faith. However, the Church wanted to maintain a celebration of the resurrection of Messiah. Hence, the Council of Nicea (325 C.E.) established, among other edicts, that Christians would not be allowed to commemorate Passover but would observe the resurrection on a new holiday called Easter. According to this Church, Easter would be observed on the Sunday after the Spring Equinox. Consequently, today many Christians have forgotten the intimate connection between the resurrection and the Jewish holy days. It makes one wonder if it wouldn't have been simpler and clearer to continue to celebrate the great works of God at His appointed times. Is it any wonder that the Church historically has had such little awareness of its own Jewish heritage?

Passover - Spring - Rain

We are in the throes of Passover Seder preparation for about 100 guests. Louis and I have hosted this Jewish Feast & communion celebration for Beth Tephila (House of Prayer) & other friends for about 6 years now. Some of our chickens and lambs have ended up contributing a large portion of the meal! This week Louis is trimming, koshering, marinating and roasting lamb on our barbecue grill. He then freezes it for the seder. I am making matzoh balls for the matzoh ball soup and freezing them as well. I've made over 250 matzoh balls so far. Only by working ahead like this, does the seder not become overwhelming in all its preparation. I attended my first seder in the home of my future parents-in-law while I was a college student. I was a nursing student at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. and took courses with the University of Maryland right on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing. The seder opened new insights for me to my Passover Lamb. He is pictured in numerous ways throughout the experiential meal and all the Scripture passages that accompany this thousands of years-old Jewish tradition established by God for His people. It helped bring about their deliverance from Egypt and is a spectacular memorial to our Savior. The seder will be held on the evening of April 23rd this year. It is always on the 14th day of Nissan, which starts at sunset on April 23rd. Our daughter's birthday is always close to this feast. She spent her first birthday evening at a Passover Seder with Louis and I. She slept through most of it in a carrier at the side of my chair.

A Gift: Love your children for who they are, not what they do.

Tonight I heard a lecture on "Mothering Strategies to Help Kids through Changing Times." The speaker, Lisa McMinn, is a professor at Wheaton College & authored Growing Strong Daughters. She began with numerous examples of messages that permeate our culture and tell our children they will be loved for what they do and what they look like, not for who they are.
"Only the beautiful, strong and young deserve to be loved", is fed to them thousands of times in our media. Parents, without realizing that they too have bought into these cultural values, tend to reinforce them. Especially the myth of "24/7". This myth says that the busier our children ( & we) are, the more fulfilling our lives will be. She quoted from Space for God by Don Postema. "Leisure implies an attitude of non-activity, of inward calm, of silence, it means not being busy, but letting things happen. Leisure is a form of silence...only the silent hear, and those who do not remain silent, do not hear... for leisure is a receptive attitude of mind, a contemplative attitude... the capacity for steeping oneself in the whole of creation. Such an attitude pits us against compulsive busyness, against drivenness. It leads toward solitude and contemplation, toward creating an inner receptivity, a space where we can hear our deepest longings, realize what life is about, penetrate into reality. It can mean making a space for God. It is prayer." (Some of the other blogs I've read resemble this quote. Maybe that's what drew me to blogging.)
These were some of Lisa's points that got my attention:
. Being loved for who we are, not what we do, helps our children be resilient.
. If we love our children for who they are, we will let them fail & then sit with them in their failures.
. Be careful how much we praise our children for "success".
. Tell your child often, "I love you!" and don't add anything to that remark. Your child needs to know she/he is loved, just because she/he is yours. That's how God loves us.

Crabby Old Woman

After Beth Tephila service, Oneg Shabbat (the meal after the service) and the Jewish Discussion Group the past two Saturdays, my husband & I have visited Ruth. Ruth has suffered a couple of strokes in the last 18 months. The strokes left her extremely weak on the left side, unable to communicate well anymore and unable to follow long conversations. Just before her 81st birthday in March, her family moved her to a small assisted-care home. She lives there with 8 other elderly women, but has her own bedroom, bathroom and large walk-in closet. Ruth's face lights up when she sees us, so we know that she recognizes us as friends. She tries to communicate, but quickly becomes frustrated since the words she is thinking are not the garbled words that come out of her mouth. She is sitting lopsided in the wheelchair and lost her slipper socks somewhere down the hall. She clutches a stuffed cat that she strokes and talks to. We have learned that if we sing some of the main old hymns of the faith that Ruth learned by heart and played over and over as a pianist for years, she is able to join into the singing. She correctly sings long phrases of the hymns and even harmonizes in a nice soprano voice. This week we all got carried away and sang for over an hour. Ruth was tapping her right foot, the one unaffected by the stroke. She wore a huge smile the entire hour. We hated to leave after so enjoying the visit. When we returned home, a friend had e-mailed us a selection that so fit with Ruth that it was uncanny. Here it is. It is worth the read.

Crabby Old Woman

When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it was believed that she had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Assn. for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on her simple, but eloquent, poem. And this little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give the world, is now the author of this "anonymous" poem winging across the internet:

Crabby Old Woman

What do you see, nurses? What do you see?
What are you thinking, when you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eye.

Who dribbles her food, and makes no reply,
When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice, the things that you do,
And forever is losing, a stocking or shoe?

Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse, you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am, as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten, with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who love one another.

A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now, a lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty, my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows, that I promised to keep.

At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide, and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other, with ties that should last.

At forty, my young sons, have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me, to see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more, babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead,
I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years, and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old woman, and nature is cruel,
'Tis jest to make old age, look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone, where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass, a young girl still dwells,
And now and again, my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living, life over again.

I think of the years, all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact, that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people, open and see,
Not a crabby old woman; look closer...see ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an old person who you might brush aside without
looking at the young soul within... we will all, one day, be there too!