Proverbs 2

For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh forth knowledge and understanding. (Prov 2:6) Isaac Newton was a great man. Did you ever think about why he was so great and achieved so much? Well I'll tell you why: he read and studied his Bible with all his heart every day. He asked God to instruct him. He watched nature and he became great. You may say: "That's too simple, that wouldn't make me smart!" you know what if that is your attitude you won't get very far unless you change it. Isaac Newton heeded Proverbs 2:6 and he became great lets not seek more evidence, let's just get on with our Bible reading, let's search for those precious hidden gems!

Proverbs 1

For school, teacher ;) has been getting Stell and I to read a chapter of proverbs and then write about it:

What is wisdom? Prov 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beggining of knowledge. To be wise you need to know things. And if you know lots it means you have knowledge. And if you have enough knowledge, you will be wise when you are in a pinch. So lets see how to get knowledge - Prov 1:5 says: A wise man will hear and increase in learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel. Also it says in Proverbs that fools don't listen to counsel and we don't want to be fools do we? Next blog will continue how to get wisdom, knowledge and undertanding. :)

Perfect Peace

No-one knows when they are going to die or say how long they are going to live. Now I know no-one likes to think about that sort of a thing because people naturally want to live long and happy....
But today I was thinking about dying for some reason and I thought that say I was on my death bed, and all I was accustomed to thinking about was fansisy and that was what I was thinking about on my death bed. I wouldn't go to heaven would I? If I were dying I would want to be thinking about Bible promises and keeping your mind on 'Him'. Wouldn't you? And I thought of the Bible verse: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee; ..... But then I thought, now how can you just keep your mind stayed on Him all the time? And the answer came, read the Bible. Simple as that. Read your Bible every day. And you wilt be kept in perfect peace. Don't you just love the sound of that? Perfect Peace? That is what everyone longs for. The answer is short and simple. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. It's in the Bible. Anyone can have perfect peace. They just need to keep his mind on Jesus and His promises.

Be Faithful

My two sibling are in Switzerland right now, and they visited the Waldensian Valleys of La Torre, Torre Pellice, Pra Dell Torno, Angrogna and the Mt Castelluzzo. The Waldensians were Christians that lived in the mountains and valleys near the roman catholics. The catholics tried time and time again to convert them to roman catholicism, but they held fast to the truth even though often times they were thrown over precipice to a cruel death below, slaughted like pigs. As in this sonnet that Milton wrote: -

"Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold.
* * * in Thy book recorded their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold,
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To heaven."
(* * * - their names)

But they held fast to their Redeemer, Who lives. Through all trials and conflicts, they held onto one motto - Be Faithful. They were Faithful even unto death. And "The Light shines into the darkeness". They were missionaries to the catholics, and the light from their story has never gone out.
Let us, hold to their motto, let us Be Faithful. They went through many a hard times, death from enemies always on there trail, but they stayed Faithful. We should praising and thanking God for the easy time we have, but it won't always be that way.

Lord stay by our side, and help us to Be Faithful and to shine the light into the darkness that those who don't know you might find the Light and be saved. Amen.

Sabbath

   This week we preserved apple sauce. There was a lot of work involved. I got sore fingers from cutting apples into the huge drums. Then we cut even more while what was on the stove cooking! We got to have a break from cutting when we bottled the sauce.  That was good but during the bottling we managed to burn our fingers!  Dad burnt his worse than mine as he was putting the apple sauce into the bottles. After Dad had filled the jars it was my job to take the jars to the desk to allow them to cool.  As soon as we had bottled all of the apples that we had done we were back to cutting, that is until we ran out of space!  When the jars had cooled enough we washed the outside of the jars and stacked them up high in the pantry.

    Wow!  We had done a few hundred jars!  What a sight!  Before I knew it, the week had passed and it was Friday afternoon and the sun was setting.  We had worship and opened the Sabbath.  Ah!  I was so happy to rest from all  of that hard work on this special day God had set aside for us!

    Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
    20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
    20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
    20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
    God rested on the Sabbath, then commanded that we do the same, as a sign that we were His and obeyed Him our maker. Many people think that, when Jesus died on the cross, that the 4th commandment died with Him, er, that it was changed to Sunday. But what happened to what Jesus said to the Israelites?
    Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
    5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
    5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
    If the 4th commandment died at the cross with Jesus, then would not all the commandments have gone to the cross with Him also? Then does that mean that we can kill, (6th) commit adultery (7th), steal (8th) lie (9th) too as well as ignore the Sabbath?

    I cannot see anywhere in the Bible evidence for Sunday keeping or the abolishment of the Sabbath.
    So happy Sabbath everyone!

Faith

Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
Indeed it was that that saved many a person, in Jesus' day there many who Jesus couldn't heal because of lack of faith. Oh let us never lack faith! How many times did Jesus say in the Bible "O ye of little faith"? I want you to go to your Bible and see, and then tell me.

The disciples and Jesus were on the lake and Jesus was asleep. And then the winds were blowing a gale, the disciples were afraid, even though the Saviour of the whole world was there, - asleep. And they doubted and became afraid! and said Lord save us! We perish.
Matthew 8:26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
If they had had faith, they would have been sure of safety, and not been afraid because Jesus was with them, the same as He is with us all the time. Though we do with the mortal eye see him, Jesus is ever by our side, ready to catch us, and to hold us up, if only we would have faith. What is faith? It a question for you to answer. (on "comments".)

Ruth

Ruth 1:15...........And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. 
1:16 And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
Here we have a Moabitish woman, who grew up in a pagan family, worshiping pagan gods, and living with her whole family. And her husband died and Naomi, thinking of how they would probably not like Bethlehem because of all the differences I named above, told them to go home. Orpah went home.

But Ruth was steadfast. She had seen what she wanted, and her eye was on that goal. She wanted not a husband, she wanted God, Naomi had something she didn't, (not the bitternes), and she wanted it, more than home, family, friends, old gods, and an husband. She wanted God, the only one infinate, the one who could give her peace which was void in her culture. And she was willing to leave all to find it, to leave negetive influences, so that she could be with a city, a nation of people who worshiped the God she was looking for. And because she cared not for things of sentamentality, such as family and home, and that she was looking for a higher calling, God blessed her with a home of her own, a husband and a child, and a mother in law for the childs nurse.

Let us all seek God in earnest, with all our heart, forgetting all but not, and clinging to God our only comforter. Let us stay by God's side, and let us not forget the price paid for us, and the meaning of it. Amen.