A Word From George

“I do recommend and assign Thursday ... next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.” –George Washington (October 3, 1789)

The Lord Gives Providence!

I've told you all about how my family is doing a "Back To Eden" garden.

Well like many things, I get distracted by watching my daughter during the week and on the weekends I'm rushing to get everything done that I couldn't do because my hands were full.

Well one of the things I have forgotten to do, is source genuine woodchips.

It's easy enough to do, just call your local arborist and they'll be happy to dump them wherever you want them. I've had my list of distractions though.

I have taken the trouble to source compost. I should be able to get lots and lots of it. I'm very blessed that I can get it from one of the local municipalities for just the cost of renting a dump truck.

All of that to get to this point.

Today before Elizabeth was even ready to go to work, a man knocked on our door and apologized for the inconvenience as he told me that his trailer had acquired a flat tire and that they needed a place to park it. He asked me if in front of my house was ok. I'm a hospitable man, so I said sure! It's really no matter to me as long as Elizabeth is able to get out of our driveway.

Well some hours passed and I noticed that the trailer was still out there.

More time passed and I heard some noise coming from the trailer. I noticed that the trailer had a ditch digging machine on it. I figured they laid lines or pipe of some sort.

As I was looking out at the scene I saw a pickup truck parked behind the trailer that said something about "Tree Service". Immediately I jumped on the opportunity. Right in front of my house was a chance to secure many loads of woodchips, and I didn't even have to make a call.

I had a good conversation with the owner of the company. We looked at both sides of my house and decided which one was best for a heavy truck to drive on. He told me that sometimes I might see him once every two weeks, and that sometimes I might see him four times a day.

I'm not sure how large his trucks are that haul large loads of chips but from the way he described them, they sound pretty large.

I'm not sure when he'll expect to deliver his first load, but regardless, I have some preparing to do.

I need to have the back field mowed and tilled!

From what I understand, it doesn't matter which goes first. The woodchips or the compost. Though I'll concede, I would like to have all the compost dropped before I have too much woodchips.

It's nice to see the Lord working in my life and providing. I definitely see this as providence, as His will.

Anabaptist Dancing! Part One



This posting is a posting of honesty, introspection, reflection, and redirection.

When I was young in the pentecostal church I rarely-if-ever hesitated to worship our Lord by dancing, leaping, or even running the aisles. I'm talking about when I was probably eighteen to the time I was twenty-three.

It was around the time I turned twenty-three that I began to have personal contentions with the way the church worshipped. I began to feel that there was an absent focus on preaching but a very present focus on active worship. There wasn't enough preaching and too much music and dance. I let my focus on this become a distraction and a roadblock to my personal walk with God.

After I was married the contrast to my former self was stark. I really didn't worship God in the same way. Even though I was fellowshipping with the same congregation I became stiff and uptight. I no longer sang aloud, I never danced, and certainly never ran the aisles anymore. I began to look down on those that did worship that way as disorderly and out of touch with what God expected from us as worship.

It's funny how my contention was with the fact that there wasn't enough preaching, but that my focus became rather the way in which we worshipped. So I guess in the absence of preaching, I became focused on the one thing that was truly present. Worship. The altruistic purpose for which we meet in fellowship. To give God the glory.

I want to be clear that this is all a recent revelation to me. My eyes are being opened to the deception I let myself believe. No one indoctrinated me with this back then. I guess it was partially my thoughts on becoming an adult and "acting" mature that also firmed up my new conviction.

The word of God says that we are to be like children. This is very true. It's not easy to let that guard down for everybody, but it is a commandment.

David's Wife, Michal, was made barren because she mocked David for worshiping by dance. We should follow his example, clearly it is Biblical. Furthermore it is evident that if we try to dissuade others from worshipping in this manner, that we are as guilty as Michal



Here are the two parts of 2nd Samuel chapter 6 that discuss the offense of Michal.

6:12-16

¹² And it was told king David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obededom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obededom into the city of David with gladness.
¹³ And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
¹⁴ And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
¹⁵ So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
¹⁶ And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

And here is 6:20-23

²⁰ Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!
²¹ And David said unto Michal, It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel: therefore will I play before the Lord.
²² And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.
²³ Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.
The word "play" in verse 21 is referring to the instruments that David played, not the playing of a child. Nonetheless it would still be relevant even if it were misunderstood. Leaping and dancing before the Lord is a very shameless way of worshiping.

I honestly felt bad for David when I read this because for those that don't know, David was given Michal by Saul. The Bible says twice in 1st Samuel 18 that she loved him. I can only presume that the love was reciprocated because when Saul told David that in order to have her hand in marriage that he wanted one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, David came back with two-hundred. Seems to me that is a statement.

Well unfortunately for David, while he was away for a period, Saul took away his daughter as David's wife and gave her to another man. After a long while David was able to get her back. This scripture above transpired after he repossessed her. We can only infer that she no longer loves him.
That's sad. What's worse is that her own hatred that she cultivated in her heart caused her to become barren. Michal rebuked David for worshiping the Lord. It really is that simple.

That point aside, let's refocus on the overall point of this posting.

If we have the inclination to dance and leap before the Lord as a form of worship, we have the Word of God illustrating to us that it is holy and appreciated of the Lord. Also, the Word makes it clear that we are not to ridicule or persecute anyone for doing so. For me to observe this is a true exercise in humility. My pride is swallowed. I was wrong. However I am thankful for the experiences I had on my detour. It has made me the Christian I am today.

A congregation of dancing anabaptist pentecostals, that would be beautiful.

Since I've had this revelation I've come to the conclusion that there is a time for worship and a time for preaching and if a balance isn't met, then the needs of the people and the needs of God are not being satisfied appropriately. I'd have no problem meeting with pentecostals if I knew in advance that it was going to be a worship meeting, but I would have a problem if it was conveyed that there would be preaching and there wasn't any.

Bear with me, I'm coming around to this myself.

I've been to pentecostal services that were three or more hours long, I loved them!
Sometimes it would be two hours of dancing and one hour of preaching and honestly I am fine with that, I truly feel like that gives God the glory he deserves. But I've also been to meetings where there was twenty minutes of preaching and an hour and forty minutes of music and dancing. That kinda bothers me. That happening once is tolerable, but it happened three consecutive weekends in a row.

I pray to meet like-minded saints.

I know there are other anabaptist pentecostals out there, but we are all on different levels. I truly wonder how they feel about these things.

I know how the Amish and Mennonites of today look at it, I'll be writing about that soon. It seems to be at contrast with the Amish and Mennonites of the 16th century.

Bless you in the name of Yeshua

When All Else Fails, Plant Roses!

 



See this beautiful rose?

When we first moved into our house we were forced to mow it to the ground because the grass was too high, the second time we mowed it because we decided that we didn't want flowers obstructing Elizabeth's view while she did her weaving. Then a span went by where we weren't able to mow the yard.

When we got back to it, there were THREE rose plants!

They won't die.

Apparently you can't go wrong with roses.

It's beautiful, healthy, and can stand being mowed over multiple times.

I'm not sure how tall it will get, but at this point we are done trying to kill it.
If it has this much will-power it deserves to liv.

It only stands about 6-8"s but that was still enough for one of the plants to put forth a flower.
It was a nice dash of color against our house.

A word of caution about roses. Plant them away from deer and horses, both think that roses are a tasty treat!

Real Butter! With Pictures



 

 

This is the starting product. A gallon of real milk. The top part is cream, the lower half is milk. When the two are separated you have cream and skim milk. The cream is what gives the milk flavor so when we make butter I drink the milk but I don't enjoy it.

 

This is us skimming the cream off the top. It's very thick compared to what you are probably used to from the store. From here we separate it in to two mason jars that are both half full.

 

 

 

 

We then put lids on the jars and shook them for about 15-25 minutes. It was stunning for me. It was my first time. After about 10 minutes I began to wonder if I was doing something wrong, I couldn't see that anything was happening. Then all of a sudden I noticed a lump in my jar. I tilted the jar over on it's side and I could see that there was a very large lump of butter beginning. We both became very excited, each of us was doing one. By the time that twenty minutes had passed we were just making sure that we had shook it enough, being as it was our first time, we weren't sure when to stop.

We were both very surprised by how much of the cream became butter. Both jars together only created a half cup of "butter milk". "Butter milk" is what they call the milk that is left over after making butter.

 

 

 

 

 

A view into one of the jars.

 

 

 

A view into the other jar. 

 

 

 

 

Both jars side by side

 

  

 

 

This was us straining a jars worth of butter, getting the buttermilk.

 

 

 

 

This was us washing one of the jars worth of butter, cleaning it so that there was no buttermilk left on it at all.

 

 

 

And this is the final product, a jar full of butter!

 

 

Elizabeth and I are eager to make butter again. We found our Dazey butter churn hiding in a box in the garage. We really want to use it. It should be much easier on our wrists. I'm not sure when we'll get a chance to do that. I had hoped that it would be easier for us to get an extra gallon from our source but it's proven to be difficult. And neither of us really want to waste a gallon of drinkable milk. The skimmed milk is very unappetizing.

 

A note about real butter:

 

Do not keep it out like you do store bought butter, this butter will not keep at room temperature.

That being said, you will want to leave this butter out for a while before you intend to use it for a meal, or for bread, etc. It becomes very hard and difficult to spread when cold. Of course a simple remedy for a slice of bread is to put some on a slice as best you can and to microwave it. It doesn't take long at all. Simply taking it out from the fridge and letting it sit for a half-hour is plenty of time for it to become spreadable. It's very smooth. If you practice this, I encourage you to consume the butter inside of a week and certainly by the end of two.

 

Or you can try a French Butter Bell. We've not tried that yet for real butter. If you have please send us a message, we want to hear about it!

 

 

Because your butter will not have any preservatives in it, it will not keep in your fridge as long either. I think that if we had made one mason jars worth that we would have enough to last us two weeks. We eat like birds, so if you like butter, feel free to make as much as you want. Obviously with the cream from one gallon, you'll have a mason jar full! A quart of butter.

 

The truth:

This butter tastes exactly very similar to store bought, however if you know the cow that you got your milk from, then you know for a fact that this is the real deal and that it is much more nutritious and healthy for you. It's worth the fun of making it with the family, that's for certain!

 

 

 

 

 

My Struggle With Anabaptist Views Of Non-Violence

Quite a long title huh?

For those that are unfamiliar with groups of Christians that identify themselves as "anabaptist", that group includes the Amish, Mennonites, the Old German Baptist Brethren(O.G.B.B.), the Hutterites, and the various other groups that fall under the name of "Brethren".............and then you have us......Anabaptist Pentecostals.

I've not spoken to any of the other groups about how they look at non-violence except for the O.G.B.B., I expect that the Amish and the Mennonites agree for the most part with their interpretation of scripture.

What they told me is this. That they do not believe in violence and that they abstain from war.

This I can agree with.

Then they elaborated.

They told me that even if someone broke into their home, that they would not offer resistance, even if the invader initiated the rape of their wife.

I try to be agreeable as much as possible, but this was too much for me to handle.

I chalked my disagreement with them up to the fact that I was only then becoming familiar with anabaptists. I figured that there was something in the Word that I had skimmed over and that I needed to find.

So I read the New Testament again, I still did not agree with them.

I can only speculate that the other groups agree with their ideology.

It's been approximately five and a half years since I had that conversation.

Ever since then I have struggled with my partial agreement with them.
I agree that a man should not engage in violence. That violence is evidence of hate, and that those that hate will not enter into heaven.

The Bible tells us to forgive.

I agree that war is not the manner in which the Lord intended for us to resolve our disputes.
But I've always felt strongly that when diplomacy fails, and an individual or group resorts to aggression, that any man or woman has the right and privilege of self-preservation, including self-defense.

A saint of God will not instigate hate, violence, or aggression at any time.

But the other half of the disagreement revolves around the fact that to attain peace, after trying diplomacy, our only resort to neutralize violent aggression may be to utilize aggression ourselves.

When the dust has settled, we have peace.

The next aspect of this line of thought becomes; if we don't resist-is it suicide or martyrdom.
The fact of the matter is it can not be martyrdom if they are not persecuting us for our faith.
A random stranger invading our home has no idea what our faith is unless they ask. Even if we declare our faith at the moment of their attack, our faith will most likely play no role in why they chose us at their target.

If we permit the rape of our spouse, we are as guilty as the rapist.






The word of God calls us to be peace-makers.


Matthew 5:9 - Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

I desire to be a peacemaker in all that I say and do. Diplomacy is always the first step.  Having love towards everyone, our brothers and sisters, is imperative to creating and maintaining a peaceful attitude and atmosphere.


This week I met another Sabbath keeping anabaptist family. We discussed many topics. This issue was discussed. They agreed with me.

The verse the father used to reinforce his point was one that I've mentioned on this blog before. I've never heard it used in this context.

1 Timothy 5:8- But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

I think this is an interesting interpretation of the verse, one that I'm not prone to disagree with.
Providing for our own takes on many different responsibilities, not just financial.

I feel that henceforth my conviction on this matter has been settled, however it didn't require me to compromise. I feel comfortable now about this. However I will continue to pray, and ask Yeshua for his guidance on the matter.