Bible Verses Used

Colossians 3: 12~17

Matthew 7: 1~5

Luke 6: 27~38

Romans 2: 1

James 4: 11~12

Romans 14: 10

We need to put our roots down deep in God. There are surface roots, but if there’s no rain, the plant will wither and die. The first time a storm comes along, you are in deep yoghurt. Put your roots down deep. God looks at our ♥♥♥ ~ you can’t do without God’s love.

Let love guide your life; then the whole church will stay together in perfect harmony. We are the church. There are many people who have their “church persona” and the “rest of their life persona”. We need to have the same persona throughout the whole week.

Jesus commandments are:~

• Love God.
• Love others.

You can’t be a God~lover and not love others. The human tendency is to stand on the sidelines and not to pitch. We are not to judge others, for with the measure with which we judge others is the measure with which we will be judged. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Who are you to judge your neighbour? When you criticise someone else, you are going where you are never meant to go. How many times have I sat in judgement? If a person’s drowning, they will push you under in order to save themselves. There is no excuse for pushing someone down in order to elevate yourself.

We are to pray for our enemies. Criticism is the major instrument that Satan uses to destroy the church. Peace, harmony and unity are what God wants within our church today. Unless your roots are down deep, it is easy to go Satan’s way. There is a narrow way or a broad way ~ the broad way is the easiest way.

Gossiping is passing on information when you are not a part of the problem or a part of the solution. People who will gossip to you will also gossip about you. People who gossip cannot be trusted with your confidences. The greatest wounds come from other sheep, not from the wolves. Gossip is not meant to be a part of our lives. When people gossip, they are destroying harmony and unity within the church. If they are gossiping, confront them with this. We each have talents and abilities, and the church needs each one of us. God blesses churches that are united. God is looking for a church that will build and strengthen believers.

People are looking for acceptance and love when they come to our church, a church where every person can be:~

• Accepted
• Loved
• Valued

Leaders and pastors are not perfect, but they need your support and prayers to build the church that God wants. We want God to be welcome to walk into our church, and we need to work together.

No matter what comes, we shall stand and we shall build the church that God wants.

Today’s Tuesday Treasure is a gift that was given to us when we moved into our third home by my husband’s second cousin, Jim and his wife, Peggy. It sits on our kitchen mantlepiece, and is a constant reminder that God’s blessings do crown our house. It has been securely packaged during every move since then, and it has survived four moves, even the last move when the furniture removalists all but destroyed lots of our furnishings and fittings – clothes drier, table and five of the six chairs, dressing table, strereo player and nebuliser. Take my advice – if you’re moving house, pay the extra for the insurance, for if you don’t, you will be severely out of pocket.

Today’s “treasure” is not an expensive one, but it has much sentimental value for us, and is a constant reminder of God’s blessings over our home, that our work is blessed and that our house is prospered by the Lord.

Housework ~ did I say housework? Now, I truly did hear sighs and groans from some of you! Washing your mouth out with chocolate sounds like a wonderful excuse to indulge one’s chocolate addiction without feeling guilty, now doesn’t it?

These last few weeks have been incredibly difficult for us, but not just because of the pain aspect – it is more the frustration of knowing what needs to be done, but not being able to do it. Housework  (there’s that word again!), especially mopping and vacuuming make Thursdays a very long day, with my husband struggling through the vacuuming and my son mopping all of the floors and verandahs – then having to do his school work, as well. He is currently studying toward his year 12 certificate, so school work is not a walk in the park, either.

People from our church have asked whether they could help with the housework, but the sheer distance makes that unfeasible, as it is about 80 kilometres from church to our home! I really wouldn’t expect anybody to travel that sort of distance to do our mopping and vacuuming. However, we have taken them up on their offer to help with meals when my husband goes into hospital, for they will be very full days! In the meantime, we have been struggling along, and knowing that God would work things out.

When I visited the physio, he asked if we would benefit from home help, as I had spoken to him about the difficulties that we were facing on a week to week basis, and he said that he would approach the appropriate authorities in the local health service. We had our interview this morning, and they have said that we definitely qualify for a cleaner to come in to vacuum and mop the floors in the main living areas. With homeschooling, the main living areas include pretty much all of our home, except for my son’s sunroom and the guest bedroom. Praise God, for He truly does work all things out for our good!

While I am here, I would really like to thank everybody who have taken the time out of their busy lives to pray for us ~ your prayers are very much appreciated, and God will truly bless you for honouring Him.

…my friends!

Then, when they arrive home my husband puts the long lengths of wood through the sawbench, which sure saves a lot of stress on the chainsaw. It is so much quicker putting the wood through the sawbench, too. Our woodshed is starting to look as if we might have enough wood for winter, now. In this area the temperature plummets to minus eight celsius in winter, but in summer it soars to a mighty forty-seven degrees celsius.

I praise God for the beautiful, warm and sunny autumn days so that we can replenish our wood supply. In the Old Testament times, the only wood that was allowed to be cut down were trees not bearing fruit. We don’t cut down any trees – we just clean up the wood that has fallen in the farmer’s paddocks. Today was 26C, and it was an absolutely splendid day, although our old stone home is already starting to feel the effects of the weather cooling down. I praise God that He knows what we have need of before we even ask, and that He provides all that we need!

This morning, when I awoke my son, daughter and husband had already completed most of the housework, so we had breakfast, a very late breakfast I might add, and then the children washed and dried the breakfast dishes.

When they had finished the breakfast dishes, my daughter went off with her dad to collect firewood from one of the local farms, as a HUGE tree has come down in the paddock that they will be sowing very shortly. My son stayed home with me so that he could finish the vacuuming and mop the verandahs. He was still completing the dishes when I noticed fur bunnies along the skirting boards and the carpet near the skirting boards – aargh – this is why my asthma has been so severe, lately,  so I took hold of the vacuum cleaner, thinking that I could actually help with the housework. Silly me!

No such luck – I had nearly finished along the edges of the skirting boards in the loungeroom, and was vacumming one of the corners that didn’t look as if it had been vacuumed for a very long while, when it started. I coughed and coughed, my breathing became more difficult and then the wheezing started. My son was up in his bedroom, and I thought that he was never going to come down, but eventually he did, and I gasped, “Nebuliser,” at him. Of course, where was it? In the car. Where was the car? Not here! Darn it! Usually we are all together as a family, but the wood needed to be cut and the housework finished, and we couldn’t be in two places at once.

He wanted to call an ambulance, but living out here, the calls all go to Adelaide for ambulance, and by the time he had explained where we were, it would have been too late. He jumped on his bicycle and rode the  three kilometres to where my husband and daughter were cutting wood, and found them just arriving there after going to see about buying some oats. He threw the bike into the trailer, and they drove home and set up the nebuliser. I was so hot and unable to breathe, but somehow God sustained me through it all.

There were two lessons learned from this -

• Lesson one is that the nebuliser needs to be with me at all times, which was the reason that we left it in the car in the first place.
• Lesson two is that I need to explain to our children exactly how things need to be done.

Yes, it’s easier to do things ourselves – well, sometimes! It takes time and effort to show our children how we want things done, but how will they learn unless we teach them?

The things of God are learned in the same way -
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. John 6:45

My son is learning well, and this afternoon he has used the crevice tool to clean along the edges, and even went as  far as to shift the piano, which hasn’t been shifted for a very long time. Now all that we need to be able to do is to shift it back…  It weighs a ton! My husband and son managed to shift it back, and my son commented, “Now I have gorilla arms – they have stretched that far!” Now, I wonder, how often should we shift the piano???

I praise God that He strengthens us through times of trials, and He gives us His Peace – the verse that I remembered today was:~

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on thee:

because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

and He did ~ He kept me in perfect peace!

There was a Scottish painter named  Smokey Macgregor who was very interested in making a penny where he could, so he often thinned down his paint to make it go a wee bit further.

As it happened, he got away with this for some time, but eventually the Baptist Church decided to do a big restoration job on the outside of one of their biggest buildings..

Smokey put in a bid, and, because his price was so low, he got the job.

So he set about erecting the scaffolding and setting up the planks, and buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down with turpentine..

Well, Smokey was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly completed, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder, the sky opened, and the rain poured down washing the thinned paint from all over the church and knocking Smokey clear off the scaffold to land on the lawn among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint..

Smokey was no fool. He knew this was a judgement from the Almighty, so he got down on his knees and cried:

“Oh, God, Oh God, forgive me; what should I do?”

And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke..

“Repaint! Repaint! And thin no more!”

This is the end result well, nearly the end result of our productive day collecting firewood – it’s going to keep us warm twice more – once when we stack it into the shed and then, finally, in the combustion fire. My son and husband went out to an abandoned farmhouse (with permission from the farmer) to cut firewood, and they came back with a trailer load of firewood. The wood that they cut is fallen wood – there are no trees felled during their wood-cutting expeditions.

After they arrived home, we had lunch, and then my husband put the wood through the sawbench, which saves using the chainsaw, and it is cheaper and quicker to run. He only has to sharpen the saw blade about every six to eight trailer loads, whereas the chainsaw needs to be sharpened every load. This is about a week and a half’s firewood for our home.

I think that the men folk have done an excellent day’s work, don’t you think? Praise our heavenly Father, for we are going to be warm this winter.

While my husband was chatting to one of our local farmers, the farmer said that he had another farm near us, and there was LOTS of dry firewood to cut. My husband and son went out to the old farm, and these were the first photos that my son took. In the first photo, you can see the dry stone wall – around here there are many of these old dry stone walls, and they have such character. In the next photo, this is ye ol’ farmhouse, which I find rather sad really, as the pigeons have overrun the house.

In these photos you can see the old chimney and probably the tack room – aren’t they gorgeous? If you look carefully at the photo on the right, you can even see the old door.

These are the old stables and the stable window, which I thought was ever so rustic.

Mind you, my son also had to load the trailer, but he took fifty-five photos while they were out cutting wood. I can see why, as it was extremely hard choosing which photos to post to my blog. They were only gone for about an hour and a half, and they have a full trailer load of wood – my husband ♥♥♥ his new chainsaw. I feel so blessed to be living in this area with all of the history associated with it. Praise God, for we definitely won’t be going cold this winter!

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4: 8

• ...for you are mighty to save, you keep us sheltered beneath your everlasting arms, and you carry us when the going becomes too tough for us to go it alone. I praise you that your love for us is boundless.
  

• …that you have strengthened us during the past week – knowing that you are there for us makes life so much easier.

• …for my husband who has been a tower of strength, even with his worn-out knee. He has cut firewood and been teaching our son how to milk the goats.

• …for patient goats, who will stand still (with enough oats!) while my son perfects his technique in milking them.

• …for my daughter, who has done more than her fair share of cooking and helping out around our home.

• …for friends – blogging friends, internet friends and IRL friends who make life much more valuable simply by their presence in it. The comments that you leave on my blog make me feel loved. ♥

• …for support organisations, such as the HSLDA and ROHUS - May their work be blessed by our Almighty God, as they seek to return Dominic Johannson to the loving arms of his parents, and as they seek to stop the implementation of draconian homeschooling laws in Sweden.

• …for granted travelling mercies during the last week. Even when we had a flat tyre, it was able to be repaired, and we are having light truck tyres put onto the car this week in an attempt to prevent further punctures.

Thank you, Jennifer for hosting Praise each week. Care to participate in this Meme, please visit Jennifer, and don’t forget to leave a comment – she loves visitors.

The Start of our Day

This sunrise was the start of our day, and my daughter took the photo just before breakfast this morning. In our home, we arise at 6:45 a.m., and then we have our morning devotions.

Today has been a really busy day, as we had to travel to Port Pirie so that my husband could have x-rays taken of his knee, and I had a CT scan taken of my back. We then went op-shopping ane we had some really good finds – my daughter found a skirt, two blouses and ten books, my son found a brand new polo shirt and a T-shirt, and my husband found three skirts, one blouse and a dressy summer top for me. All of the women’s summer clothing was on sale for $1.00 per item, so for all of my daughter’s clothing and mine, it cost $6.00, and that included my daughter’s books, too.

Next stop was to buy a new chainsaw, as ours died the other day – I really can’t complain, as we bought it fifteen years ago, and it was a Stihl 009 – the baby of chainsaws. The new chainsaw is a larger model, a Farm Boss MS290, but still a Stihl, as they are so reliable. My husband is so happy with it – he couldn’t wait to try it out tonight – you know, boys never grow up, they just play with more expensive toys! It was either buy a new chainsaw or an air conditioner, and the amount that this chainsaw cost wouldn’t even cover our first year’s power bill for an air conditioner.

On the way home, we dropped in to see friends and they invited us to stay for lunch. We usually see these friends every Friday when we go shopping and have afternoon tea with them, and they sometimes come out for dinner with us.

This old Run-Down Farmhouse is on the way Home

After leaving our friends, we did our grocery shopping, and on the way home, we took the photo above. I often wonder what sort of lives these people lived when they lived here – did they know of God, perhaps spend time with Him in prayer, have a personal relationship with Him? There are many old run-down farmhouses in this area, and it makes you wonder why they were abandoned, doesn’t it?

Next we decided to check the mail, as our mailbox is a three kilometre drive from our home. After leaving the mailbox, the mudflaps dragged on the ground, and my husband said, “I think we have a flat tyre.” Sure enough, the tyre was dead flat, and I’m sure that the last thing that the poor guy felt like doing was changing the car tyre on the dirt road. Nevertheless, he did, and we have now decided that we are going to put light truck tyres onto the back of the car. This is two punctures in two weeks, and the light truck tyres are puncture resistant, so next week they’ll be put on. Imagine the problems if my husband wasn’t with me, and I had to change the tyre??? I can’t even lift the spare tyre, let alone jack the car up!

In the middle of all this, our children did most of their school work in the car, although my son did some of his last night. I praise God that tomorrow is Saturday, and I can sleep in. What a Day!