Pain

I learned something tonight that hurt me terribly.

A great friend in my youth, a person though younger than me by atleast five years, always seemed more grounded and wiser than me, has left the flock and has also become a part of the homosexual agenda, it appears that he cohabitates with a man that he seems to be in a relationship with.

This struck me with shock.

The last I had known about my friend was that he was attending college in St. Louis to become a youth pastor. He had many connections and friends doing what they could to support him, let alone a home church that was very happy for him.

I'm not certain what happened between then, a number of years ago, and now.

When we spent time together I wondered to myself what his family would look like in the future. What kind of spectacular wife he would have. How much more accomplished his children would be than even him. These things won't happen. That hurts. I counted him as an altruistic friend that was always benevolent.

Like I said, I'm not sure what happened between then and now, as we haven't been in touch for a while. I always expected him to come back to town, but he hasn't. He's still in St. Louis. I know he has many more people in his life who's opinion's and feeling's matter much more than mine, however I can't shake the hurt. In a youth group that didn't always look to the light, he was a reliable leader that knew holy from unholy.

I can't condone sin. But I do love my brother in Christ, even as a sinner. We are all sinners and fall short of the grace of Yah. But He has mercy and has afforded us salvation through Yeshua.
I will always have love in my heart for this friend of mine.

I had been thinking about the topic of homosexuality and if I wanted to address it on this blog. Many people think ( especially in this "modern" age) that to reject sin is to reject the sinner. What some people don't consider is that it is possible for ourselves to be rejected by the sinner. When I learned of my friends decision, it compelled me to post this blog. I pray that my words are not abrasive and that although they may be received with dissuasion from this individual, that he will still consider my love and appreciation for the place he took in my life while we were young.

I've not been active on my FB for what has been several years so this has only now come to my attention. As it has come to my attention, and the technology we have today is a new thing, I am struggling with what I should do about a friendship I felt in my heart. Should I remove him as a friend and send a clear message? Or do I keep him and continue to pray for him? Granted if I am to say anything about my hurt, he is prone to take me off of his list of friends. I believe I have made a decision but I will wait on it for a week or less, depending on correspondence over the course of this week.

At the end of the day, I know this: Yah would not accept it, and He would chastise him for his immorality.

I don't feel it's my place to chastise said friend. Though maybe that's me being weak as a Christian.

My hurt comes from seeing that in this world that a great holy leader has been lost, and that in the world to come I won't see him at the gate. From all appearances his heart is not repentant. Though he does still have a vast amount of content on his page with regards to his church. Some people have responded to him in less than holy ways, albeit those same people are not what I would consider followers of Yeshua as of today.

I know that this individual is intimately familiar with the Word of God and that what I am about to write is nothing new to him. But to have a clean conscience I have to write it anyway.

Leviticus 18:22 KJV

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

or more clearly from the NLT

Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.

And here is a more vivid illustration from an outspoken Paul.
Romans 1:18-32 NLT

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.* 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

 

 

 

Also,

 

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (NLT)

 

1 Timothy 1:8-10 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine ... (ESV)

 

 

These verses are not written in hate. They are holy scripture. I do not hate my brother for losing his private fight with temptation. The Word says that if we hate our brother, he have not the love of the messiah. In fact that verse, 1st John 3:15 equates hate to being a murderer. I love my brother, and that is why I petition his choice.

 

 

 

I can't help but battle at the same time with a commandment that I am not fully versed in, that of shunning. I know that it is scriptural, through and through, but not having examples of holy shunning makes it a little difficult to follow a safe path with it.

 

Here are the verses regarding shunning. A topic I have avoided till present and may be able to better elloquate in the future, but certainly not at present.

 

I was going to just quote 1st Corinthians 5:11-13. But after reading the chapter, the entirety should really be read.

 

From Matthew 18:15-17 NIV

15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

 

The Word of God truly is clear on the matter.

 

I don't blame my friend for looking at the world the way he does. Things have changed drastically in the last thirty years. I'm not sure how youth these days can try to stay pure with all of the evil around them. There are so few people even from my generation that are pure, not to mention the fact that more and more of the people that were pure at one point in time, have now fallen by the wayside. It hurts and it is genuinely sad. And many of these people would still call themselves saints, even though they choose to no longer "be separated" from "the world".

 

In a day of self-worship steeped in materialism and church buildings that are more entertainment centers than institutes of salvation, where is a stray sheep to turn? When the media barrages the public through a bullhorn trifecta of radio, TV, and internet-todays churches whisper from across town to turn from sin. When I look at today's generation turning from Christ, I don't judge them, I could easily be one of them. Their falling away is not their fault. I know who the liability rests on, and I know in all my soul that those same individuals would never hold themselves accountable, much less lift a finger to save said soul.

 

Today's generation has nothing to contrast materialism with, it is what they believe to be "normal", it is "their normal". Individuals of age, have it as their responsibility to enlighten today's generation that there is a choice, and that every decision they make-whether it be which shoes to wear or whom to associate with- is a decision that they have complete control over. That popularity is not the answer, but rather integrity and perseverance.

 

I'll end this with Matthew 7:15 KJV

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

 

Take heed to whom you listen. Not all in the church are saints.

Reusable Diapers

 

Diapers are gross no matter how you go about it. I'll do what I can in this post to help you out the most I can.

Elizabeth and I tried two or three different brands of diapers. We tried out two different styles. One where the pad is snapped onto the diaper and then tucked into the cloth of the diaper, sort of like a blanket (these are called pocket diapers); and another where the pad is folded and tucked into the diaper, so that it's only being held by material at the front and back of the diaper (these are diaper covers). We purchased them through Green Baby Bargains.

Green Baby Bargains has one sale a day in regards to various children's items (educational, toys, household goods, etc.). Elizabeth has purchased all of my diapers this way and have saved quite a bit of money. Do your research on what you think will work best for your family and then watch for sales while you are expecting. We started with two dozen diapers and have recently purchased a dozen more. You can make it on 24 diapers but around the six month mark, we started having to wash daily.

 Elizabeth purchased a package of Seventh Generation disposable diapers to begin with due to the meconium issue. We have heard it is hard to get out of the reusables. This was also a blessing as we were both exhausted. The other newborn issue is that she thought the diapers would fit because Abigail weighed over 8 pounds when she was born and the diapers are for 8-35 lbs. They didn't! Abigail is very tall and slim. It took about a month for her to fit and so she will be watching for a few dozen newborn diapers to add to our collection.

I'll start with pictures of the ones I dislike.

I dislike them for more than one reason. First The pad has to go between two layers, so when it's all soaked, you have to pull it out. Eww. Secondly, because it has a snap, you also have to unsnap it, even when it may be brown, double eww. And thirdly, THEY LEAK!!!, even when you double the layers, they are still likely to leak. You never have to double the other diapers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only nice thing about these diapers, is that the snaps are multi-colored. You would think that it wouldn't be that big of a help in any way, but it actually is-especially when your child needs to be changed at night. The brand is called Lulabye-Baby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The inside of this diaper is adept at collecting random hairs in it, no matter how clean your house is. If you have a hair floating around in your house, you will find it here stuck in the material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That yellow circle is where the pad snaps in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the male part of the snap at the top of the pad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one pad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are two pads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pads stuffed into the diaper. The hole where you see the pad sticking out of is how you are able to tug the pad all the way through to the end of the diaper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one of two kinds of pads for the other type of diaper we have. This specific one is the one that I prefer. They are called Indian Prefolds. It's not too large, is relatively hands-free once the diaper has been used, and dries a bit easier than any of the other pads of this style that we have tried. You can get organic cotton ones for around $2.50 a piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This kind is guaranteed to work, albeit, it's a little larger and a bit thicker. There is an absorbent side (bamboo) and a non-absorbent side (cotton). These sometimes don't dry as well as the Indian Prefolds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diaper Safari brand!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what I was talking about when I said the pads were held by two pieces of material at the front and back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fold One.

 

 

 

 

Fold Two, then flip over, and

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voila!

 

 

Abigail never gets diaper rash. We strictly don't use any chemicals/powders/lotions or any other "thing". We only use baby-wipes. Babies naturally have soft smooth skin, they don't need our help. Her skin is only rough on her knees now lately because she's crawling all over the house. Let nature work for you.

 

 If your child is crying there is a reason! Hunger, sleep, or wet diaper, or a need for love/security-this last one is frequent.

 

Many times your child will cry because they just want to be held.

 

 Don't listen to those people that tell you that you are spoiling your child because you hold them when they want to be. There is a time and an age when you have to expect them not to be in your hands all the time, but that time is no sooner than when they can walk and understand what you are saying, otherwise you are just fighting with nature. Touch is the language that children understand the quickest. To touch a child is to love them.

 

 

 

I never thought about one of the facts of a homestead: Raising babies!

It's all relevant I guess, another aspect of life on the farm.

Well, this may start a tick of writing more about Abigail. Raising her is beautiful, I love it. She makes us so happy and she really is much easier to raise than what we had been led to expect.

Part of homesteading is saving money everywhere we can, we figured out that it would cost about
 20$ a week to buy disposables. However our total monthly water bill for the month is only 50$ and we spend approximately 24$ a year on detergent. Recently our purchase of a dozen Diaper Safari covers and inserts cost us 118.40$ with shipping on GreenBabyBargains. If you were to three dozen, it would be around 350$. The savings are clear. Abigail will use these and so will her next sibling. I'm not sure how long they'll last after that.

 

I'm going to have to start those postings now. They're at the ends of my fingertips.
I'll space them out over the next weeks or so.

 

I pray to our heavenly Father that He bless you abundantly with peace and grace that can only come from a relationship with Yeshua our Messiah.

 

ASK QUESTIONS BELOW

Michael E McCartan



Lord and James

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure who will find this information useful but here is something you may not be familiar with.

The word that is commonly translated from both Greek and Hebrew as “Lord” is actually the Hebrew word “Yah”, as in “Yahweh”. This is interesting to me, so out of curiosity I cross-referenced this with a Bible I have that is written in Pennsylvania Deitsch. I wanted to know what the German plain-folk translated it as, to see if they felt it had a modern equivalent.
I was actually surprised to see that they didn’t translate it as anything! It was written as Yah in the Hebrew and it remained Yah in the Pennsylvania German.

 

Yah is the Hebrew name for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I’m not sure what you can do with this knowledge but I still think that it is worth knowing.

 

 

Hallelujah, meaning "Praise Yah!" or "Praise God!", is not a comment towards God himself. It is a declarative exclamation telling the worshipers of Yah to praise him! This really changes the dynamic of worship. It takes things from being as simple as simply saying "Praise God", to actually having to be more proactive and to have to think of ways in which to praise Him.
 

 

 

Another factoid; there is no such book as the book of James.

It is actually the book of Jacob, or Jakobus in Pennsylvania German, I’ve also cross referenced this with a translation to Hebrew, I can’t remember the way it was spelled but it was clearly a version of Jacob.

Why was the name changed?

Because King James was a very vain man and he wanted a book named after him. Plain and simple.

I hope this helps you in some way.

Plain Things

For those of you that are unfamiliar with plain culture and are unsure of how plain folk look at the world, there is a new periodical that might help to open your eyes.

It's called "Plain Things".

It's published every so many months by a group of anabaptist living in Kentucky.

Here is a website with information about subscribing. There is no prerequisite to subscribe. Anyone is able to.

http://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/plain-things.html

I pray that Yah blesses you in all that you do and that you always keep your eyes on Him through whom we have salvation, our savior Yeshuah our Messiah.