My Great God

Wednesday night, I told everyone at our Bible Study what a blessing it is to yourself and others when you share how God speaks to you. Well, I must say that it is also a blessing to share how God works in your life. So, I'm going to brag on my God for a bit. Many of you know how difficult this year has been for us financially. Work has been too slow and, when you own your own business, that means you starve (in a way). Well, this is our slow season, work has been almost nonexistent and our savings have dried up. But we have been trusting God.

It hasn't been easy trusting God. But we have decided this winter that, come what may, we would we would enjoy life, have faith that God will provide, and not let our situation prevent us from doing the things we should be doing. Did I say enjoy life? I mean it. That is what is different this winter. We had a choice; we could be broke and miserable or we could be broke and happy. We have chosen "happy."

So, last week in church, I told God that I would not let anything prevent me from doing what He wanted me to do (meaning I would not allow myself to get depressed and shut down). That night, Austin busted his head. It wasn't a big deal because, as any mother of young boys knows, these things happen. But when I took him to the ER, thinking I had LACHIP (Louisiana's Children's insurance program), I had the unpleasant experience of learning that it had expired regardless of the fact that it was issued January 28, 2008. Now, we didn't qualify this past year because our income was too high, even though we could not afford health insurance. So, the very same day I make a commitment not to get too upset, we get a brand new ER bill... and those aren't cheap. But I wasn't too worried about it. I am hoping that when I do our taxes, we will qualify again this year and they will pay us back for this trip.

But all this information was to set the backdrop for what happened yesterday. Now, God has never let us down. We have been broke and had a few bills bounce, but we have never missed a meal, and still own our house and business. Nevertheless, going into February, we don't yet have the money to pay our house note and I'm not sure we will be able to cover the bills which are automatically withdrawn from our accounts. As of today, it will take all that we have in our accounts not to lose our business insurance and hopefully not to bounce anything this week coming. I tell you this to say that we have nothing available for emergencies or extras and will be eating what's in our cabinet until a few of our clients pay us. So Wednesday night, when Seth sounded hoarse and had some chest congestion, I prayed a little prayer to keep him healthy enough not to have breathing problems. He's been on breathing treatments before and I really didn't want to face the situation of choosing whether to keep him home and take our chances when I knew he should go to the doctor or borrowing money I would have little chance of being able to pay back anytime soon.

Seth slept well Wednesday night, but Thursday morning when he coughed, he undeniably had the croup. Croup gets significantly worse at night and nothing is scarier than a little one who can't breathe. I knew we had to do something before nighttime came or we might be looking at another trip to the ER. We searched for croup medecine (a steroid is the only thing that helps with croup) and found some, but it expired in February 2007. I couldn't take the chance. At that moment, I knew we had to see the doctor... and I knew we couldn't pay for it. I sat down at the desk and stared at the phone, desperately searching for a way, and knowing there wasn't one. I had done so well trusting God through all the troubles we had faced this winter, but at this one, I stumbled. I cannot tell you what it's like to have a child sick with a potentially life-threatening illness and no money for a doctor. It is the most heart sickening feeling I have felt. I knew it would work out somehow, we would certainly borrow money before we would let our children suffer, but facing that decision alone is crushing. And I felt crushed.

But our God is the God who provides. He is the one who performs miracles. He fed 5 thousand with 5 loaves, he paid taxes with a coin from a fish's mouth, and he gave a widow an endless supply of oil from one little oil jug. He did miracles then and He does miracles now. My mom went outside to put mail in the mailbox, picked up the newspaper and saw something lying in the street by the golf course. She went to investigate it and brought to me a $100 bill. I took that $100 bill and Seth to the doctor's office. The doctor charged us $20 for the visit and gave us his medecine from samples she had. We now have $80 overflowing. What a mighty God we serve.

Do you not know my God? This might look to you like a coincidence, but I ask you how many coincidences would it take to convince you that this was no coincidence? I have seen so many. My life is full of these "coincidences." They do not always involve money, but they always involve meeting needs, mine or those I love. He says, "When you search for me with all your heart, you will find me." (In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 29) This the work of my God; and I just had to brag on Him.

Milk and Honey Spa Notes

Why Milk and Honey?

God calls Israel the “land flowing with milk and honey” 16 times

God specifically chose MILK and HONEY

Flowing with Milk
•Well-fed, multiplying livestock
• New life
• Nurturing, safety
• Nourishing
• Prosperity for the livestock owner

Flowing with Honey
• Beautiful flowers
• Sweet fruit trees
• Fertile grasslands
• Desserts and delicacies

Science is teaching us more about the beneficial properties of milk and honey
• Throughout Genesis 1, God declared what he made good
• Renewed interest in natural healing and beauty products

What we see is a shadow of spiritual reality
Each of these substances also has spiritual significance

Olive oil

Beneficial Qualities
• Absorbs UV radiation
• Efficient in lowering the metabolism rate of body cells
• High in antioxidants, including vitamin E
• Helps relieve itch, stings and bites
• Heals dry brittle nails and softens cuticles
• Conditions and adds shine to hair
• Great make-up remover

Spiritual significance
• An ingredient in the sacred anointing oil (Exodus 30:22-33)
• Anointing oil foreshadowed the coming anointing of the Holy Spirit
• Saul (1 Samuel 10) and David (1 Samuel 16:12-14)
• The lampstand – olive oil (Leviticus 24:1-4)
• We are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14 – compare with John 8:12; 9:5)

Honey

Beneficial Qualities
• Honey is a humectant
• An anti-irritant
• Has anti-bacterial and healing properties
• Has sun-blocking properties

Spiritual significance
• The Word of the Lord
• Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:3) and John (Revelation 10:10) ate the scroll
• David called the word “sweeter than honey” in Ps. 119:103
• How sweet are Your words to my taste Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Milk

Beneficial Qualities
• contains Vitamins A and D, which helps to make your skin soft, yet strong
• lactic acid in milk has natural beta hydroxy acids which not only exfoliate your skin, but soothe it
• adds essential moisture to your skin
• it seals up the small scales on your hair follicles that can cause hair to look dull

Spiritual significance
• The Word of the Lord
• 1 Peter 2:2 “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

Salts

Spiritual significance
• The Covenant of God and Israel
• Leviticus 2:13 “Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
• 2 Chronicles 13:5 “Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?”
• Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth” and “Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

Holy Blue

How important is color to God? If you have done Beth Moore's "Believing God" Bible Study, then you already know that He values blue... you wore it for 12 weeks on your wrist in response to Numbers 15:37-41, "to look at, so that you will remember all the LORD's commands and obey them." But why blue? I would like to share with you what I learned today.

The history program I am doing with the kids, Tapestry of Grace, lists internet links for the time periods, people, and topics we study. Today, we were studying the Phoenicians and I saw a link called Fringes and Snails. I had to check it out, curious as to how it related to the Phoenicians. For once, I am going to give you the highlights and refer you to the site itself for more information.

Apparently, the Phoenicians were traders in blue dye derived from, what else, sea snails. These same snails also produced the royal purple dye worn by kings and noblemen. Because the process to extract the dye from the (small) snails was difficult and time-consuming, the dye was very expensive and this was a very lucrative trade. Very few people could afford this dye. Yet, God commanded the Israelites to weave this very rich cloth into their tassles.

Before I give you more information on the dye itself, which is fascinating and exciting, I would like to tell you what I learned about the significance of the tassles. Let me make it clear that I am taking my information from the Fringes and Snails website. That being said... here is the breakdown.

Ancient fringes represented the status, or position in society, of the man wearing the fringe. A number of Bible verses reference the hem or fringe of the a man's garment as being significant: from David cutting off the hem of Saul's robe (as a sign of David replacing Saul's place in society) to Jesus saying that the Pharisees lengthened their tassles (as a sign of hypocrisy). And while we have the ancient example of Ruth asking Boaz to cover her with his cloak, we have the modern example of the Jewish bridegroom covering his bride with his prayer shawl.

When God commanded the Jews to weave this special blue cloth into their tassels, he was ordaining a visual sign of the special status that the Jew has with God.

Now, of course, me being the skeptic that I am, I know nothing about the author of Fringes and Snails
and I decided to do some further searches, until I came to a website called "The Association for the Promotion and Distribution of Tekhelet" Tekhelet is the name of the color produced from the special dye. Apparently, the art of making this dye was lost a few hundred years after the birth of Christ, when the Roman emperor made it illegal for anyone but royalty to wear the color. Since the 1800's, the Jews have been trying to identify the animal that produced the dye and recreate the cloth, which they have not worn in over a thousand years because they would not wear a substitute blue. About 20 years ago, they successfully reproduced the dye and have begun creating and distributing Tekhelet yarn and tassles. This is significant for them because many Jews believe that the revival of the Tekhelet yard is a sign that the Messiah is coming (not to mention that there EXISTS a national Israel).

They have produced a video showing how they make the yarn. They do it the ancient way because they want the yarn to be pure and holy, so they shear the sheep, dye the wool, and spin the yarn by hand. The videos are fascinating to watch.

But before I show you the videos, I would like to address what this means to us, the Christian. Obviously, we anxiously wait for the Messiah and anything that restores into practice something God commanded His people to do is exciting for us, as well as for the Jews. But there is a lesson for us here, as well. In the first video, a gentleman says that, for the Jews, wearing the tassle with the royal heavenly blue (the blue was the color of the heavens), reminded them that they were not poor. That whatever their physical status was, they were priests and kings... every single one of them. 1 Peter 2:9 says that, "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession." We now carry that banner.

Imagine... when the woman with the issue of blood strained only to touch Jesus' tassle, it was woven with blue, signifying His priestly kingship... and she knew that. Now, we continue the work the Son of God began.

Enjoy the videos...

The Mystery of Tekhelet, Part 1 of 3:


The Mystery of Tekhelet, Part 2 of 3:


The Mystery of Tekhelet, Part 3 of 3: