Have you ever wondered?

I get a really nice little magazine, when it comes out, called "Above rubies"

I love it, it is so family orientated, and full of good advice, no matter what age you are....

This is what I got from it this time!
QUOTE:


" Should people who come and stay with you, do what they are used to, or do what you are used to, in your home?
In other words......do they conform to your “house rules” or do you “fit in with what they usually do”
What does the Bible say?

God makes it very clear in His Word that the strangers were to have the same laws as the "home-born.” Let’s look at some of the Scriptures:

Exodus 12:49, 50: "One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you. Thus did all the children of Israel; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they."

Numbers 9:14: "Ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land."

Numbers 15:15, 16: "One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance forever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger before the Lord. One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you."

Numbers 15:29: "Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them."

Therefore I use this biblical principle in my home. Of course, I do have grace and mercy, but there are times when I have to lovingly, but firmly, state the rules of our home.

If parents do not have the decency to stop their children jumping on my sofas, I will have to tell the children to stop. I have often seen them jumping on beds and had to curtail them.

We like to sit up at the table when we eat. And I don’t allow eating throughout the house, except in the kitchen and dining room. It’s not easy to keep a home clean when crumbs are dropped through the house and drinks spilt on carpets.

We expect people who stay or live with us (and because we open our home continually in hospitality, we have many people coming and going) to join with us for Family Devotions morning and evening. This is part of the lifestyle of our home-born family, and therefore we expect “strangers,” although usually friends, to partake with us. Now if we have non-Christians sitting at our table, we won’t expect them to pray personally around the table as we usually do. However, we don’t forgo reading the Word, and my husband will pray instead.

I could go on talking about many issues and you will have lots of questions too. We need to be sitting around together in a circle to discuss this question. However, I hope these Scriptures will give you a guideline as you face situations like this in your home.
Nancy Campbell
Very good advice, thank you Nancy

My parents did this, when I was a child,
I did the same with my children, but I was told I was too strict, when it came to visitors.....I still did it though...My home....my rules!
Blessings
Yaddy

It has been quite a time!

What a time it has been.....Two weeks before Christmas I developed a cough, which turned into Pneumonia.
Daughter came up from a 6 hours drive from the south, to look after me!
I thank God that she listened to her inner voice!

I was allowed home on Christmas eve...with plenty of rest.
That happened. Daughter went back down south but left me so much food, I could have lasted more than a month.

Now husband is in hospital, and he won't be coming home for a few days yet.....
When he does, he will receive home help as I can't manage him on my own.

I pray that you all have a very blessed year ahead of you, and that the Lord won't tarry too much longer as I am so ready to go home,
to be with Him.
Bless you all, Yaddy

In the beginning....

.John 1 v 1-5:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that has been made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not.



Genesis 1: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1 v 1:In the beginning!!!! was the “word”=Jesus. and the Word was with God...and the WORD WAS GOD!

So, from the above verses in John chapter 1, the WORD was with GOD and the WORD was God...


Genesis 1: GOD created the heavens and the earth.....

John 1 verse 3: All things were made through Him....Jesus/God, and without Him was not anything made, that has been made, in other words, Unless Jesus/God made it, nothing was made!

HE created everything.....

You....Me.....the world as we know it......yet......

( How would you like it, if you had made...created something,......and after a while, this creation you made...wanted nothing to do with you? Maybe your children????......)

John verse 4: In him was life......he gave us all life!

John 1 v 5: And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not.....

Apprehended=catch on; =understood;

The darkness did not understand it.....did not “catch on” that Jesus was/is the light, and the darkness did “not get it”


So, who...what is meant by darkness? Barnes' note on the verse tells me...( “Darkness, in the Bible, commonly denotes ignorance, guilt, or misery.)

See Mathew 4 v 16 quoted from Isaiah 9 v 2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:

they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined”. (With the arrival of Jesus)


So from that, we can understand that the people in those days lived much as todays people live.....

Doing their own thing...

not wanting to know or hear about the “word”

Ignorant of the Bible...........

misery in their lives because of this ignorance..........

sickness, misery....till.....they see...find out...who....what the ‘LIGHT’ is...



So, now we celebrate Christmas......God/Jesus the creator of the world everything....


John 1 v 3: without Him was not anything made......yet......He loves His creation so much, and He can see how much they need help,

(in which they are helplessly useless in) to help themselves,

that He comes as a helpless baby himself, to do what he can, to restore this creation back to himself.

The only way he “can” do it, is by becoming one of this creation, and mingle with it.......

to later offer Himself up as a sacrifice, which is the only way possible.

It has to be someone totally sinless and perfect, to be able to reinstate the bond between the creator and his creation.

Jesus came.......... HE IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

Bless you all

Yaddy

Makes for Interesting Reading

This post is adapted from Expository Apologetics: Answering Objections with the Power of the Word by Voddie Baucham.

Believe No One Who Calls Himself an Atheist

If what Paul says in Romans 1, is true, there is ultimately no such thing as an atheist. Anyone who calls himself one is wrong on at least three fronts.

First, someone who claims to be an atheist is suppressing the truth he knows. According to Romans 1, “What can be known about God is plain to them” (v. 19), and their denial is an expression of the fact that they are among those “men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (v. 18). Therefore, whatever they believe about themselves, the God who made them says otherwise, and we must believe God rather than man.

Second, anyone who claims to be an atheist is contradicting the God of truth. It is one thing for a person to be wrong about himself. It is quite another thing for him to be in disagreement with what God says about him. God says every man knows. Therefore, anyone who says he doesn’t know is calling God a liar. It’s a bit like a man arguing with his mother about what day he was born. Only in this case, it’s not his mother, but his inerrant, infallible, Creator.

Third, anyone who claims to be an atheist is ignoring his greatest need, and his only hope for its fulfillment. Man’s greatest and ultimate need is God. Apart from God, man is incomplete. Moreover, he is utterly incapable of achieving or attaining what he lacks. This is what drove Solomon to write, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Eccles. 2:11). This is the state of every person apart from God.

More here

Blessings
Yaddy

Reformed....what????

Humanist: “See that bum over there? Communism can put a new set of clothes on that man.”

Christian: “I see a man made in God’s image. The Lord Jesus Christ can put a new man in that coat.”

A few years ago, the leaders of the emergent church declared we needed a new Reformation. These same people also dismiss the Bible because they say that in a visually-oriented postmodern, post-evangelical culture no one can know truth, and words are open to too many interpretations, anyway. Even the Word.
I always wondered what their idea of Reformation is. I do know they rely on humanistic philosophies and methodologies in place of the Bible. When a person attends their meetings, or she learns that life’s problems are solved psychologically, sociologically, politically, and by throwing in a little morality (the non-dogmatic, non-binding, non-guilt-producing kind). There are also “spiritual” approaches, everything from exorcism to guided visualization, yoga, and other techniques.
As a result, the emergent preachers succeed at dressing up the dead, albeit in leisure suits. But having rejected God’s offer and provision of salvation through Christ alone (ye old Reformation remedy), they can no longer hold out the hope of making men new. They reject new creations in Christ, people who are redeemed by God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and continually undergoing washing by the Word.

Instead, they merely clean up corpses and teach them to smile the smile of the deluded, those who haven’t yet given up on their own efforts.
Christians know that the problem is sin and consequent death. The solution is death and resurrection in Jesus Christ. For the emergent ones, though, the fundamental (nasty word) problem sinners have is difficulty making non-counter-productive choices.
They say that people are struggling because they are victims of outrageous fortune. Thus the need for these new high priests of the mind/brain/soul/body. They’ll teach you how to take control in order to be set free from your past-present, addictive, seemingly-inevitable fate.
After all, you can’t reenter the womb and reemerge. Even Jesus knew that (wait, maybe that was Nicodemus). But you can get in touch with your inner child, your free-roving spirit, your evolving persona, your reinvented self. And we’re already really good at lying to ourselves and pretending. So who’s to say who’s really saved anyway?
Having tossed aside the real gospel, they had to rewrite the Bible to fit their agendas. Their watered down counterfeit entertains their flesh. A true Reformation message that came from the Lord would be biblical, and hence deserving of the emergent ones’ scorn. (And it’s not as entertaining to sinners determined to remain in sin.)

Therapy and emotional experiences passing as worship are all that is on their pages. We see that medical doctors do not pursue treatments that cannot be reimbursed by insurance companies. Hired clerics are just as astute, business-wise. They are accountable to accountants, lawyers and other politically correct superheroes. And on their fellow unreformed travelers who pay them hush money to keep quiet about all the uncomfortable passages in Scripture they have no intention of taking seriously.
Their way doesn’t work. It is counter-productive. They are going nowhere, but strut in style. They’re thinking so outside the box that they will forever drift in space. The Lord never set out to fix or renovate men or mankind; even less, make cosmetic changes, acceptable to whoever the current trendsetters are.
Christ takes once-born people and turns them into children of God. Twice born, their lives begin to change from the inside out. It takes a while, but the Author of our faith is most assuredly the Finisher.
Government indoctrination efforts through schools, the media, medical/pharmaceutical industry, military—are busy with their great social experiment. That would be the same one that did so well way back in the Garden of Eden. There, the evil one’s methods were much simpler. But we recognize him still.
He steals, he kills, he destroys. He lies and dissembles. He also reforms. He is the father of all Faustian bargains, who calls in his marker just when his children are riding highest. But we have a Father! A heavenly Father. A Father who loves us so much, He sent His Son—the eternal Son of God—God the Son, in the flesh to die for our sins. He made a way for us to return to Him. He did not withhold any expression or manifestation of His love and justice. He would have His family, whatever the cost.
Still, all the glitter that is not gold entices us. The enemy attempts to mimic God, and we mimic him. “I am.” Those are the Lord’s words alone. Let the devil and his children make their grandiose claims. They are nothing less than bound for hell.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
http://www.raptureready.com!

Blessings
Yaddy

The Covenant - by Hal Lindsey

To understand God's plan for the world, it is vital to understand what, at first, may seem like a dry subject - covenants. In the Bible, God makes two kinds of covenants with human beings - conditional and unconditional. A conditional covenant is predicated on God saying to man, "If you will." An unconditional covenant is predicated on God saying to man, "I will."

Conditional covenants are like the contracts we humans make among ourselves. "If you give me a certain amount of money, then I will give you a car." God makes conditional covenants, too. He made one with Israel through Moses. In Exodus 19, He said, "If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

Did they obey His voice and keep His covenant? No. God offered them a deal, but they didn't fulfill their part of the bargain. Does God then have to fulfill His part? No. A conditional covenant means, "If you do this, then I'll do that."

But God also made unconditional covenants. In an unconditional covenant, God simply says, "I will." Period. Once such a covenant goes into effect, there are no conditions that have to be fulfilled by human beings.

God's covenant with Abraham - what theologians call "The Abrahamic Covenant" - is an unconditional covenant. Through the years God reiterates and expands it, but He never changes the unconditional nature of it. Indeed, He cannot change it or He would be a liar and the Bible says in Titus 1:2 and elsewhere, "God... cannot lie."



To add other conditions later would be like moving the goal posts just as the football team is about to score a touchdown. It wouldn't be honest. God is not tricky. He's trustworthy. Once the covenant went into effect, nothing could change it. Later, God would reiterate the covenant and expand on it, but He never changed the nature of it, nor did He add conditions to it.

Those who claim He did, have a fundamental problem. They're saying that God lied.

Psalm 105 says, "He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations, The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. And then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant, Saying, 'To you will I give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance.'"

This verse calls it a "covenant forever" and "an everlasting covenant." If it depended on frail human beings, the Word of God could not call it "everlasting" because somewhere along the line human beings fail, as Israel proved again and again.

The Abrahamic Covenant is one of the great dividing lines of scripture. Disbelieving it won't change God's Word, but it will change a person in profound ways. Among other things, he won't understand what's going on in the world.

Because this is an unconditional covenant, it cannot end. It remains in effect today and forever. That makes it fundamental to Bible prophecy. Whatever else happens, you can bet the farm that God will keep His covenant with Abraham.



So if you want to look into the future, or have a better understanding of the present, look at the things God promised to Abraham. He expressed them in a series of direct and implied "I will" statements. "I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great. I will make you a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. Through you, I will bless all the families of the earth."

Romans 11:1 succinctly asks and answers the most pertinent point. "Has God cast away His people? Certainly not!" That's just one of many New Testament passages refuting "replacement theology" and affirming that God's covenant with Abraham is still in effect.

Not only does this covenant help us understand what's happening in the Middle East right now, it is foundational to the central meaning of all the Bible's teaching - from the identity and purpose of Jesus, to "salvation by faith alone," to Christ's coming to set up a literal thousand year kingdom on earth, to Christ's secretly snatching up all believers to heaven before the great Tribulation begins.

God Bless, Hal Lindsey.
Thank You Hal
blessings
Yaddy

God said that!

When 8 year old Raymond was visiting his grandfather in the hospital, he came with his own custom made get well card.

It was on a stiff white piece of paper (8"x11") folded in half.


On the front he had written "HOPE YOU GET BETTER SOON"

On the inside in very large block letters he had written " I WILL BE WITH YOU WHEREVER YOU GO"
There wasn't any Scripture reference, so Raymond had added, " GOD SAID THAT"

That added note sent an unintended and deeper truth, that brought a smile to my face and comfort to my heart.
A hospital can be a very lonely place.
It's a world of unfamiliar faces and first time medical procedures, and uncertain diagnosis.

However, it's in just such a setting, that God can quiet an anxious heart and give assurance that He will go with you, down every hall
through every new door, into any unknown future......yes....even through the "valley of the shadow of death" Psalm 23 v 4.

Maybe you have had an unexpected set back, or loss! Your future is unknown!

Trusting Jesus as your saviour and Lord, you can be sure of this....He will go with you wherever you go!
You can believe it because God said it!

I trust in God, I know he cares for me.
On mountain bleak or on the stormy sea;
Though billows roll, He keeps my soul
My heavenly Father watches over me - -Martin

No danger can come so near to a Christian, that God is not nearer/
Thanks Mikey
Blessings
Yaddy