I have seen a few of my friends' 25 lists and have enjoyed each one and learning things about my friends which I did not know. I will attempt to do likewise. Please feel free to leave me your list in the comments section!
1. I collect fat chefs for my kitchen.
2. I met my husband online. I kept him in the "friend" category for a year because I felt we didn't have "chemistry". We were engaged 3 and a half months.
3. I met Princess Fergie (the real one, not the pop singer) when I was in England in 1990.
4. My favorite of all plants and flowers is the weeping willow tree.
5. I think my husband looks like a cross between Steve Martin and Robin Williams.
6. I nicknamed my son "Cherry Bean" when I was pregnant because the online tracker said he was between the size of a coffee bean and a cherry.
7. I left Bible college because of anti-semitism.
8. When I was young, I was too overweight to fit into Guess jeans.
9. My mom was a radio disc jockey for around 20 years. Consequently, I know the lyrics to many of the classic rock songs of the 70's and 80's.
10. I went skydiving twice when I was 18. Understanding what I understand now about the immutable spiritual laws of the universe, I look back on that in sheer terror knowing had I fallen and died, I would have been looking at the wrong side of the pearly gates. But the experience in itself was fun.
11. If I were stranded on an island, (I'd like to think) I could live on chocolate and egg nog.
12. While teenagers, my brother and I could look at eachother and know what the other was thinking. We still can to a certain degree.
13. I hate raspberries. Even the smell makes me sick to my stomach.
14. My family (mom's side) has their own language based upon a combination of baby-talk and comic routines from the 1980's.
15. My first Cabbage Patch doll was a boy my father bought from a co-worker during the "rage". I later got a girl. Both had brown hair and brown eyes. I "knew" they were adopted from the Soviet Union. My son looks a lot like the boy doll did. Many of my son's ancestors are from Russia.
16. I like to go grocery shopping.
17. I helped Jews escape persecution in Russia in 1998.
18. I love to have my hair played with and have even fallen asleep at the hairdresser's.
19. Dennis Prager IS my intellectual hero.
20. I can sing (but I can only sing really WELL in Hebrew).
21. My father's grandfather looked like Geronimo (Native American). I've only seen him in pictures.
22. I have written 3 plays (none of them spectacular), a handful of poems, and a short story. Of all, the short story was the best~ it was based on my family told from a child's point of view. I had 1 poem published. It was the worst of them all.
23. I am a sucker for a good sense of humor.
24. I saw a vision of my wedding day before it came to pass. (what positions we would be standing in-before I knew what a Jewish wedding looked like-and what my groom would be wearing). It was right on.
25. I so want to learn how to crochet.
**
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Swallow Your Tears!
I have just been absolutely tired lately. Too tired to blog. And busy. Today my status report was "You know you're extremely busy when you pick up the computer mouse to make a phone call"! Ain't that the truth? ( I really did that, by the way).
But I do have to depart from my usually serious blogs today to say that Benjamin has been doing this incredibly hilarious and precious thing lately where he literally "Gulps" (swallows) his tears to stop himself from crying! I will say, "Stop crying...use your words" and he goes "GULP" and immediately swallows his crying! Ha Ha! It looks to me like it really takes a lot of effort too. Today I noticed him doing it even when I do not tell him to. He will just start crying, realize he is doing it (and perhaps that it will not get him what he wants), then GULP!! He stops.
Talk about the epitome of learning "SELF CONTROL"!!!
All I could say was, "Please, Lord~ don't let it be just a passing phase!!"
**
But I do have to depart from my usually serious blogs today to say that Benjamin has been doing this incredibly hilarious and precious thing lately where he literally "Gulps" (swallows) his tears to stop himself from crying! I will say, "Stop crying...use your words" and he goes "GULP" and immediately swallows his crying! Ha Ha! It looks to me like it really takes a lot of effort too. Today I noticed him doing it even when I do not tell him to. He will just start crying, realize he is doing it (and perhaps that it will not get him what he wants), then GULP!! He stops.
Talk about the epitome of learning "SELF CONTROL"!!!
All I could say was, "Please, Lord~ don't let it be just a passing phase!!"
**
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Blood, the Covenant, and the Last Days Part 1
The Blood
Here are some of my thoughts on the Blood.
The blood is a topic that is central to the Bible. Believe it or not, God talks a lot about blood in His Word. It is central to understand the blood from the bible's point of view in order to understand salvation, the Christian faith, as well as the Jewish faith. Let's look at some things about blood from God's Word:
*The life of a creature is in its blood. (Leviticus 17:11).
*The blood of Abel "cried out" from the ground after his brother Cain killed him. (Genesis 4:10)
*Women were separated from their families when they had their menses. If anyone touched them, they would have to wash and would not be clean until evening. (Note: it is not as though the woman had done something wrong and was therefore separated. Rather, it was considered 'unclean' to touch a woman in the sense that to touch her during her period was considered 'taboo', such as sexual relations. It was actually a nice break for the wife!~ what a kind God). The Jewish scholars say that life is so precious to God, that when a woman has her period and that even the potential for life that month is lost, (as what happens when the egg is not fertilized and is therefore flushed out of the body), it is a time of mourning. Thus the pause and separation.
*Often, a covenant was made and then sealed in blood. This was called "cutting covenant".
*Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22 ).
*God made the first animal sacrifice to cover the sins of Adam and Eve after they fell (Genesis 3:21). He used the animal's skins to cover them.
*The blood sacrifice was instituted to cover the sins of the people of Israel as a provision for them WHEN THEY BROKE THE LORD'S COMMANDMENTS.
*The high priest would enter the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed lamb on the mercy seat (which was a type of container housing items such as the 10 Commandments written in stone). The high priest did this in order to atone for the sins of the people for that year.
*Although sacrifices were mandated, God does not take delight in the blood of goats and bulls. This is a hint that something greater was needed. (Isaiah 1:11).
*The animals that were offered up as a sin offering had to be spotless and without blemish. You could not even approach God without an offering.
*Yochanan (John) the Immerser (baptist) proclaimed about Yeshua of Nazareth: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
*Though Yeshua was human, He was also God in the flesh (for He said, 'If you have seen me, you have seen the Father') and He was sinless in every way (spotless and without blemish) (1 Peter 1:19 ).
*Yeshua told His disciples during the Passover Seder (last supper) that they must drink of His blood and eat of His flesh (John 6:56), thus meeting the requirement that each and every man must take Messiah into himself and and continue abiding in Him in order for that man's sins to be forgiven- in this way accepting the blood covenant for himself. It is not enough to just believe in God, for the Bible says that even the demons believe and tremble~ but they are obviously not going to Heaven. The wine in the Passover symbolized the blood of the lamb and is what Yeshua used to symbolize this new covenant. (Jesus Himself, who is our Passover Lamb, fulfilled the Passover Feast so that the angel of death may 'pass over' us who have accepted His covenant in blood).
*The blood of Yeshua, the Son of God, was God's ONLY provision for man's sins throughout all of history- before Yeshua came, the blood of bulls and goats only pointed the way to this future ultimate sacrifice. When the people obeyed God in sacrificing the animals for the covering of sin, God credited it to them. It was never meant to be an endless statute. It was also so the people would recognize Messiah when He came.
*After Yeshua died on the execution stake, the curtain in the Temple was rent in two, opening the way to the Holy of Holies. No longer was it necessary for a high priest to enter God's presence on behalf of the people. Yeshua became our High Priest, and the ONLY mediator between God and man. (1 Timothy 2:5)
*When Yeshua died on the stake, he declared "It is finished". He did not do away with God's commandments, as many Christian teachers suppose. Rather, He did away with the need for a blood sacrifice.
I find it very interesting that modern science is continually proving that God's word is true. For instance, in the 1960's, scientists found that the most basic sub-atomic particle which all matter consists of in the universe is the quark. What makes up this infantesimile form of matter, holding everything in the universe together, you ask? SOUND WAVES. This confirms Genesis chapter 1, "God said, 'Let there be'"... and there was.
Also, the Bible talks about man and woman and how the "two shall become one flesh". We in our post-modern internet age we must consider that just a lifetime ago, science had not yet proven that we get half of our genetic material make-up from our father, and half from our mother. (In fact, the wife of royalty was often to blame for not producing a male heir, when the sex of a child, we now know, is determined by the father.) Furthermore, a person receives 23 chromosomes from his father, 23 from his mother, (a total of 46 chromosomes) and 1 extra from his father if he is male (the Y chromosome). So every human who does not have a genetic disorder has 46 or 47 chromosomes, depending on their sex.
There is a little known amateur archaelogist by the name of Ron Wyatt who, in the 1970's and 1980's conducted archaeological digs in the Middle East. Amongst some of his claimed findings are the site of Noah's Ark, the true site of Mt. Sinai, as well as the Ark of the Covenant containing the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments written by the finger of God as outlined in Exodus . Of course the ark of the covenenant and the tablets today are in the custody of the Israeli officials and this is top secret. One of Wyatt's findings was a substance he found buried under the place of Golgatha, the place recorded in the Bible where Jesus was crucified. He sent off a sample of the substance to a laboratory in Israel. They concluded the substance was indeed human blood.
The clincher?.....the blood had only 24 chromosomes. (the extra indicating he was a male). The accounts of the angel appearing to Mary in the book of Luke state that Mary would conceive of the Holy Spirit and bear a son. So might one conclude that this son would have only 1 set of human chromosomes...that from his mother? Could this be the blood of Yeshua? The finder hypothesized that after the death of Jesus, during the big earthquake recorded in the scriptures, the ground opened up where Yeshua's blood dripped down and landed on the Mercy Seat~ the very place where the High Priest had offered up the blood of the sacrifice lamb for years~ thus ratifying the covenant and fulfilling the requirement for blood atonement for all mankind.
If the reader would like to google Ron Wyatt and look further into his findings, you will see many critics who have questioned his credentials, his competence, and his honesty. It would do the reader well to look at some of the eye witness testimonies as well, the ones that Wikepedia had refused to publish at first. I have seen video testimony of Ron Wyatt discussing his findings and I find him to be truthful as well as credible. Of this I can be certain: the man found something that shook him to the core. Now deceased, it is true that Wyatt did not hold educational credentials in the area of archaeology, paleontology, or any other kind of ology, but when a famous Rabbi from Galilee who changed the face of the earth selected His disciples, He did not select from the top of the class at the local seminary, either~ He chose fishermen.
Ron Wyatt has stated that these items will resurface in the last days. He also said that those who would follow those commandments which are written in stone in the last days will be those who will not be deceived into taking the mark of the Beast. More on that later.
It is that Blood, the blood of the One who is God made flesh, Jesus Christ, which is the most powerful substance in the universe. By having faith in that blood and taking it into oneself by faith, a person can be saved, healed, cleansed, and delivered. It is the ONLY WAY to everlasting life.
The words to the hymn about the blood ring true:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow; no other fount I know; nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my pardon this I see: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my cleansing this my plea: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing can for sin atone: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Naught of good that I have done: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
**
Here are some of my thoughts on the Blood.
The blood is a topic that is central to the Bible. Believe it or not, God talks a lot about blood in His Word. It is central to understand the blood from the bible's point of view in order to understand salvation, the Christian faith, as well as the Jewish faith. Let's look at some things about blood from God's Word:
*The life of a creature is in its blood. (Leviticus 17:11).
*The blood of Abel "cried out" from the ground after his brother Cain killed him. (Genesis 4:10)
*Women were separated from their families when they had their menses. If anyone touched them, they would have to wash and would not be clean until evening. (Note: it is not as though the woman had done something wrong and was therefore separated. Rather, it was considered 'unclean' to touch a woman in the sense that to touch her during her period was considered 'taboo', such as sexual relations. It was actually a nice break for the wife!~ what a kind God). The Jewish scholars say that life is so precious to God, that when a woman has her period and that even the potential for life that month is lost, (as what happens when the egg is not fertilized and is therefore flushed out of the body), it is a time of mourning. Thus the pause and separation.
*Often, a covenant was made and then sealed in blood. This was called "cutting covenant".
*Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22 ).
*God made the first animal sacrifice to cover the sins of Adam and Eve after they fell (Genesis 3:21). He used the animal's skins to cover them.
*The blood sacrifice was instituted to cover the sins of the people of Israel as a provision for them WHEN THEY BROKE THE LORD'S COMMANDMENTS.
*The high priest would enter the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed lamb on the mercy seat (which was a type of container housing items such as the 10 Commandments written in stone). The high priest did this in order to atone for the sins of the people for that year.
*Although sacrifices were mandated, God does not take delight in the blood of goats and bulls. This is a hint that something greater was needed. (Isaiah 1:11).
*The animals that were offered up as a sin offering had to be spotless and without blemish. You could not even approach God without an offering.
*Yochanan (John) the Immerser (baptist) proclaimed about Yeshua of Nazareth: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
*Though Yeshua was human, He was also God in the flesh (for He said, 'If you have seen me, you have seen the Father') and He was sinless in every way (spotless and without blemish) (1 Peter 1:19 ).
*Yeshua told His disciples during the Passover Seder (last supper) that they must drink of His blood and eat of His flesh (John 6:56), thus meeting the requirement that each and every man must take Messiah into himself and and continue abiding in Him in order for that man's sins to be forgiven- in this way accepting the blood covenant for himself. It is not enough to just believe in God, for the Bible says that even the demons believe and tremble~ but they are obviously not going to Heaven. The wine in the Passover symbolized the blood of the lamb and is what Yeshua used to symbolize this new covenant. (Jesus Himself, who is our Passover Lamb, fulfilled the Passover Feast so that the angel of death may 'pass over' us who have accepted His covenant in blood).
*The blood of Yeshua, the Son of God, was God's ONLY provision for man's sins throughout all of history- before Yeshua came, the blood of bulls and goats only pointed the way to this future ultimate sacrifice. When the people obeyed God in sacrificing the animals for the covering of sin, God credited it to them. It was never meant to be an endless statute. It was also so the people would recognize Messiah when He came.
*After Yeshua died on the execution stake, the curtain in the Temple was rent in two, opening the way to the Holy of Holies. No longer was it necessary for a high priest to enter God's presence on behalf of the people. Yeshua became our High Priest, and the ONLY mediator between God and man. (1 Timothy 2:5)
*When Yeshua died on the stake, he declared "It is finished". He did not do away with God's commandments, as many Christian teachers suppose. Rather, He did away with the need for a blood sacrifice.
I find it very interesting that modern science is continually proving that God's word is true. For instance, in the 1960's, scientists found that the most basic sub-atomic particle which all matter consists of in the universe is the quark. What makes up this infantesimile form of matter, holding everything in the universe together, you ask? SOUND WAVES. This confirms Genesis chapter 1, "God said, 'Let there be'"... and there was.
Also, the Bible talks about man and woman and how the "two shall become one flesh". We in our post-modern internet age we must consider that just a lifetime ago, science had not yet proven that we get half of our genetic material make-up from our father, and half from our mother. (In fact, the wife of royalty was often to blame for not producing a male heir, when the sex of a child, we now know, is determined by the father.) Furthermore, a person receives 23 chromosomes from his father, 23 from his mother, (a total of 46 chromosomes) and 1 extra from his father if he is male (the Y chromosome). So every human who does not have a genetic disorder has 46 or 47 chromosomes, depending on their sex.
There is a little known amateur archaelogist by the name of Ron Wyatt who, in the 1970's and 1980's conducted archaeological digs in the Middle East. Amongst some of his claimed findings are the site of Noah's Ark, the true site of Mt. Sinai, as well as the Ark of the Covenant containing the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments written by the finger of God as outlined in Exodus . Of course the ark of the covenenant and the tablets today are in the custody of the Israeli officials and this is top secret. One of Wyatt's findings was a substance he found buried under the place of Golgatha, the place recorded in the Bible where Jesus was crucified. He sent off a sample of the substance to a laboratory in Israel. They concluded the substance was indeed human blood.
The clincher?.....the blood had only 24 chromosomes. (the extra indicating he was a male). The accounts of the angel appearing to Mary in the book of Luke state that Mary would conceive of the Holy Spirit and bear a son. So might one conclude that this son would have only 1 set of human chromosomes...that from his mother? Could this be the blood of Yeshua? The finder hypothesized that after the death of Jesus, during the big earthquake recorded in the scriptures, the ground opened up where Yeshua's blood dripped down and landed on the Mercy Seat~ the very place where the High Priest had offered up the blood of the sacrifice lamb for years~ thus ratifying the covenant and fulfilling the requirement for blood atonement for all mankind.
If the reader would like to google Ron Wyatt and look further into his findings, you will see many critics who have questioned his credentials, his competence, and his honesty. It would do the reader well to look at some of the eye witness testimonies as well, the ones that Wikepedia had refused to publish at first. I have seen video testimony of Ron Wyatt discussing his findings and I find him to be truthful as well as credible. Of this I can be certain: the man found something that shook him to the core. Now deceased, it is true that Wyatt did not hold educational credentials in the area of archaeology, paleontology, or any other kind of ology, but when a famous Rabbi from Galilee who changed the face of the earth selected His disciples, He did not select from the top of the class at the local seminary, either~ He chose fishermen.
Ron Wyatt has stated that these items will resurface in the last days. He also said that those who would follow those commandments which are written in stone in the last days will be those who will not be deceived into taking the mark of the Beast. More on that later.
It is that Blood, the blood of the One who is God made flesh, Jesus Christ, which is the most powerful substance in the universe. By having faith in that blood and taking it into oneself by faith, a person can be saved, healed, cleansed, and delivered. It is the ONLY WAY to everlasting life.
The words to the hymn about the blood ring true:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow; no other fount I know; nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my pardon this I see: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my cleansing this my plea: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing can for sin atone: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Naught of good that I have done: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
**
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