"In His Image"

I haven't posted in a while...but have wanted to just have been distracted and kept very busy by two little German Shorthair pups. Now they are not both ours and for that I am very thankful, they are wearing me out. One belongs to our son Matthew and his wife, Cari. They are closing on their new house today and he wanted a big dog and that big dog he wanted was a German Shorthair Pointer. He looked for one but couldn't find one in KY and we found one in GA so we got it for him. Well Ed loves German Shorthair Pointers, we had one a few years ago but she died and Ed was very sad. Well now he has a new one, Liberty, and she is very energetic. One isn't so bad but two....oh boy, not much time to do anything else. I did get my Bible reading done this morning....put the pups in the kennel and now I am ready to blog : )

I was reading in Exodus 39 & 40 this morning for the OT reading. Well as I read this I was thinking "what does this have to do with me?" but the more I thought about it the more I thought, "God was very specific about his instructions to Moses on how to build the tabernacle and where to put things, even where to place the items on the table." As I thought of that I thought about myself and how particular I am about things. I like things in a certain spot and even the stuff on my tables I like a certain way. I also like things put back like they were found. No wonder I am this way, I was made in God's image. He made each of us creative in different ways. That is pretty awesome, I am not OCD, I am just made in God's image and He likes order and that is the way He has made me too.

The NT reading I read today was Luke 8, it is about the lady who touched the hem of Jesus garment and was healed. Jesus called her out, not because he didn't know who touched Him, he knows everything. He called her out for at least two reasons that I see. One was that He didn't want her to think that his garments had some kind of magical touch he wanted her to know it was her faith that healed her. Her faith in Jesus, not his clothes. Also women were not thought of very highly in Bible times and especially a lady with a bleeding disorder, she was considered "unclean" but Jesus wanted her to know that He loved her. He created her and she was precious to Him. Just as each of us are very precious to Him. He created us and loves us more than we can even imagine. We too should respect life for ourself and for others. We are all created in God's image!!! What an awesome God we serve.

ANTS!!!!

Okay this blog is taking a different step than most of my blogs : ) I have been fighting those tiny ants here at our apartment for the past week. I have sprayed and killed many but as each day goes on and I see more and more ants I am wondering if they aren't taking some spray back to their nests and saying to the other ants "come on there is some great tasting spray in this apartment!!!" and so just bringing back their friends and family. Well after waking up this morning and coming into the kitchen with a counter full of ants I decided to go to the office and tell them we are being invaded by ants. The guy I talked to about this was really nice and said the Orkin man was coming this morning anyway and he would tell him to come by our apartment. So around 11:30 the Orkin man comes to the apartment, I tell him I don't see any ants right now but that they tend to be everywhere, not in one particular spot. What does he ask me...."where are they coming in at?" Well duh, if I knew that I would have taken care of the problem already. I thought he was the pest expert, not me. Well guess what he did....the same thing I have been doing, he sprayed, oh brother. We will see if his spray is better than mine, I hope so, we will find out in the morning. These ants are like ghosts they appear out of no where, quite aggravating.

I do have some Bible verses to share that I read yesterday and today and thought they were very good. Psalm 36:5-9 "Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountians, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. You feed them from the abundance of your own house, letting them drink from your river of delights. For you are the fountain of life the light by which we see." Also Psalm 37:12,13 "The wicked plot against the godly; they snarl at them in defiance. But the Lord just laughs, for he sees their day of judgement coming." Psalm 37:16,21 "It is better to be godly and have little than to be evil and rich. The wicked borrow and never repay, but the godly are generous givers."

Matthew Gregory...Feb. 3, 1988

This blog is dedicated to my second child and first son, Matthew Gregory. Twenty-three years ago on Feb. 3 at around 10:20 p.m. Matthew made his first appearance. God blessed us with a 8 lb 8 oz wonderful baby boy. He was a pretty good baby who loved to be held by daddy every night around supper time and swing with him outside. He slept all night from the time he was 6 weeks old, which was a blessing, since his sister who was only 14 1/2 months older than him did not like to sleep very much. As Matthew grew and began to crawl he discovered there was a lot of territory for him to cover and much to be discovered. He loved to get into EVERYTHING, he kept me quite busy. One day, while he was still in a diaper, he decided he wanted to explore outside by himself. So he toddled out the front door and to the neighbors. Scared me but not Matthew, he was not afraid of much, except thunderstorms. One day after learning how to climb, that didn't take him long to learn (I guess he was just getting prepared for those deer stands), he decided to climb up on the kitchen table and walk across it. I didn't know what to do if I yelled it would scare him and he would fall so I quietly walked over to him and got him, goodness. Another time I was getting ready for church on a Sunday morning and he was awfully quiet so I had Hannah check on him....where was he...as Hannah said "oh, he is just climbing in the oven." Great, of course the oven was off it wasn't safe to leave anything on and leave Matthew with it. Matthew knew and still does know where everything is. He knew where everything was because he got into it. When he was 22 months old we were visiting my parents in MD and I was walking down the stairs carrying both Matthew and Hannah, my foot slipped and we all three fell down the stairs. Matthew's foot was under me and so off to the bone doctor, it was broke. I felt terrible but when they decided to put a cast on it I thought, "wow, maybe this will slow him down." Not he just ran...thump, thump, thump, no problem. That was just the beginning of his many accidents. Poor Matthew, it seemed like he was always getting hurt but that didn't ever stop him. Matthew loves to hunt, he has always loved to go hunting with his dad. He started climbing tree stands when he was only about 3 with his sister, who was only about 4, holding the tree stand "up" so Matthew wouldn't fall, another scary event. With Matthew around life was an adventure, he made life very exciting. He has had many falls, many trips to the ER, many band-aids, many kisses and hugs to make things all better. He was a tough boy(became known as the "Alaskan Assassin" for Meade Co. High School football)...but only on the outside. He has a big heart. He would do anything to help out. Even as I write this I have tears in my eyes thinking about how much he means to me. He is a great son. As I think back on his life, yes he kept me busy but he is such a blessing. One evening I got a call, it was Matthew, he called to tell me that I needed to come and get him, he just wrecked his truck. Wow, I couldn't get there fast enough and when I saw his truck over the hill, sitting near a telephone pole I was so thankful he was standing beside it and he was okay. We just stood there and I hugged him while tears fell down both of our cheeks. I am so thankful God protected him. Matthew was such a help while his dad was in Iraq for 15 months. He came back home during this time to finish school and be home so he could help while dad was gone. I could ask Matthew to help me with anything and he was always right there to help out,without a complaint, and it is still that way today. I love him dearly and I thank God every day for him. I am so thankful that Matthew has trusted Jesus as his Savior because I sure wouldn't want to go to Heaven without him, I praise God that Matthew has given his life to Him. Many years have come and gone since that night 23 years ago and I wonder where the time has gone. Matthew is now married and they are expecting their first child, a boy, Mason. I hope that Mason is just like Matthew because if he is they will have a wonderful, caring son and they will be truly blessed, very busy but very blessed. Happy Birthday Matthew we love you very much!!! I am proud to be your MaMa, you have made my life anything but boring : )

God of Compassion even in the Old Testament

As I continue to read through the Bible it is amazing how I can read the same passage I have read many times before and come away with something new. This happened this morning as I was reading Exodus chapters 8 & 9. These two chapters are the beginning of all the plagues God sent on Pharoh and the Egyptians for not letting His people, the Israelites, go and worship Him, well they actually start the end of chapter 7. In chapter 8 God sent the plague of frogs (verses 1 - 15), which is the second plague, the first was the water turning to blood in chapter 7, well Pharoh's magicians could also turn the water to blood and could also cause the frogs to come up on the land of Eygpt. I am sure a lot of their "tricks" came from illusions but also from Satan BUT think about it, why would they want to add to their misery? They already had frogs EVERYWHERE, why would they want to add more frogs??? It seems to me they didn't have much sense, if they were really "magical" why didn't they reverse the plagues instead of adding to them, good heavens! The frogs were the last plague that they could copy, thank goodness, if they would have kept going there wouldn't have been much left of the Eygptians. I think God put a stop to their "magic". I think this shows His compassion even in the midst of the plagues but that is not where I really see His compassion it is in chapter 9 that I really saw a compassionate God. Sometimes I think we do not see God as very compassionate in the Old Testament but as I was reading in chapter 9 verse 19 I see true compassion. God was going to send a hailstorm, not like any hailstorm we have ever saw this was some BIG hail but He was sending it "tomorrow" in these verses so He gave them warning verse 19 says, "Quick! Order your livestock and servants to come in from the fields to find shelter. Any person or animal left outside will die when the hail falls." (vs. 19) God loves everyone. He had compassion not only on the Israelites (although the Israelites were spared completely, no hail came to the land of Goshen) but also on the Egyptians, He warned them ahead of time, He did not want to see them all die from the hail He was sending. But as you go on to read verses 20 & 21 we see that not everyone listened to God some of them did not pay attention "But those who paid no attention to the word of the Lord left theirs out in the open." (vs.21) "It left Egypt in ruins. The hail struck down everything in the open field - people, animals, and plants alike. Even the trees were destroyed." (vs. 25) Think of how many people today do not pay attention to God's word. One day Jesus IS going to come back and we had better pay attention because when He comes in the clouds to take us, who have placed their trust in Him, there will not be another chance "to get out of the fields", destruction will come but God who is full of compassion has given us an opportunity now to escape and that is by trusting in Jesus and giving Him your life. Don't wait til it is too late.