Another Day to Praise!

We gathered together again this week in Frank and Judy's log cabin overlooking the Nisqually River to worship , fellowship, and share a meal. Pictures cannot do this beautiful home justice, especially since Frank and Judy rearrange everything to accomodate and welcome us into their home. Thank-you Frank and Judy. Judy is busy in her lovely and homey kitchen checking the pots of yummy food on the stove, preparing the plates, platters and bowls of great variety for us to line up , filter through her kitchen and load up our plates...and we make sure to partake of the bread and the wine along with our meal as we break bread and drink the wine in rememberance of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus.

Another view of Judy and Frank's kitchen...with a little clean-up after our meal.

The children usually join in with the adults for reading, singing, listening...but the little ones seek laps. Here, our grandson Little J., is not sure what to make of HIS Mommy holding another baby in her lap! And of course, we love to make a joyful noise with Patrick and Steve on guitar and Frank playing his saxophone.....bliss! "Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise in the assembly of the Saints." Psalm 149:1 "Whether it is a financial crunch, a sudden illness, or a personal defeat, if you fix your heart on praise to God, then you have offered a sacrifice. If you have ever cried during those heartbreaking difficulties,"Lord, I will hope in You and praise You more and more," then you know you have offered words that have cost you plenty. Praise in those circumstances is painful." "Please remember this:Most of the verses written about praise in God's word were voiced by people faced with crushing heartaches, injustice, treachery, slander,and scores of other difficult situations. They knew that the sacrifice of praise was a key to victory on their spiritual journey." Joni Eareckson Tada

"Praise the Lord all ye people..." Psalm 100:1

The Little Campaigner

She is a clever one, she is! She begins her campaign before she arrives. She makes sure she has her favorite blanket and scopes out the desired laps to occupy during our home fellowship time. We are gathering in our home this month to worship, break bread , encourage and exhort one another in His word. Above is a picture of some of our fellowship around the table. While we are eating our meal together, the little granddaughter, the little campaigner, is eating her meal as she snuggles up to her Poppa or myself, and of course she has her favorite blanket with her. This is Audrey, she writes The Homesteaders' Daughter Blog. Audrey fellowships with us too. The little campaigner is quite fond of Audrey and Audrey's sister and brother-in-law who are here tonight also. Now let me tell you about THE CAMPAIGN....after the meal, as we begin to share with one another from God's Word, the little campaigner settles herself in my lap. Then slowly,she drifts off to sleep, with a purpose! She knows her Poppa and I love to spend time with our grandchildren and we just might suggest she stay here since she is already sleeping. And this works! We just tuck her into bed in the spare bedroom, the room with bunks for the children. She is happy, very happy. Sunday morning. My husband is an early riser, he usually brings me coffee to help me wake up, but he does not know I am awake quite awhile before he and the Little Campaigner bring my coffee up. I have been listening to the cheery voice of our granddaughter and her Poppa as they talk, giggle and laugh. She keeps running upstairs to jump on our bed and say " wake up Granny!" She is pretty happy. She also has another plan. As I sip my coffee and get into motion , from the open bedroom window I hear noise at the pond. Looking out the window I see my Hubby and our little granddaughter paddling the little boat around the pond.( I have to clean and paint that boat) She and I share a taste for similar breakfast foods....don't you think Ramen noodles and a glass of milk are the perfect way to start the day? I prefer left over Chinese food, but this works too. To make it seem more like a breakfast meal one could drop an egg into the boiling water and noodles. As she eats breakfast she mentions that we are going shopping later on today. "We are?" I ask."Yes, we are going to Walmart" she replies, "So you can buy me something." I reply " I had not planned on going shopping today". She smiles. She is a happy girl, and she does have a plan. The Little Campaigner helps me water the plants and fill water buckets for the animals. She happily chatters on about many things, and mentions again that after we are finished with chores we can go shopping. "Really?" I ask. She smiles. ( As an aside, if I had told her we were not going shopping, and not buying anything, she would have been just as pleasant, she is a happy girl) Our little Candy Cat laps water off the sidewalk while The Little Campaigner finishes up with watering the plants and I remember I do need cat food and more milk, so I mention that , by the way, we DO need to go shopping. Of course she knew this all along. I suggest she kiss her Poppa goodbye because I will drop her off at her home on the way back to my home. I also suggest she thank Poppa for what he will be buying her. He asks " What am I buying you?" and she tells him" A Barbie bathroom". See, I told you she had a plan. One happy granddaughter, one very successful campaigner. I told her I was going to call her The Little Campaigner and she seemed very pleased with the name after I told her what it meant. I think she has a very rosy future with her ability to smile and laugh her way to achieving her hearts' desire, and I am very thankful she has parents to guide her toward making wise and kind decisions. And you know, she was the most excited to get home and share her new prize with her big sister, which she promptly did , after giving me a big hug and kiss.

"Campaigner: A person engaged in a campaign"

Good Time, Good Fellowship, Good Music, Good Teaching

~We have been so blessed , in every sense of the word, to have the Job family here in our home ,and in our home fellowship for a brief stay before they head up to Burlington, Washington and then back to their home in England. For any who have a teeny bit of curiosity about home church, Beresford Job's book BIBLICAL CHURCH is the book to read. Above is a photograph of Beresford,(left) and a brother in Christ, Joe Emmi, from Oregon. ~Joe came up from Oregon with a friend, and after a meal, we had a wonderful time of music and singing in the home of the Wingmaster and his family. Joe Emmi contributed some absolutely beautiful songs he wrote and sang accompanied by his guitar. IF he ever concedes to record his music I want to order the first recording.~ ~Others meeting together this evening.(Jobs , left, Coulters, right) We meet in homes and come together with songs, praises, scripture, prayer...." no one leads from the front. We are in the home of whichever family is on the rota for that week, and there is precisely no front to lead from. We all sit around the sides of the room- some on chairs and others on the floor depending upon available space- and everyone can clearly see everyone else's face. All are free to interject into the silence, whether with sung praise and worship, a prayer, a tongue, an interpretation, a prophecy, a testimony, a request for prayer, a word of encouragement. a word of instruction from the scriptures, or a reading from them; anything , in fact, which would have the effect of encouraging and building up in the Lord those present. This is the foundational underlying principle and rule laid down in scripture for the I Corinthians 14 time; " When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church." Beresford Job Biblical Church ~My Hubby ( above) with our youngest grandson, Little J. Our children ,now grown, grew up being involved in our home church and worship. They were not handed over to teachers or babysitters while we sat without them, and soaked up preaching, teaching, and singing in church. As you can see from the pictures, our grandchildren participate in home church with us and their parents. Our sons home church in another town with our other granddaughters and brothers and sisters in Christ....(below, our daughter, A.Joy, mother of Little J.) " In the New Testament, and therefore in a biblical church, the children are seen to be as much a part of the proceedings as everyone else, and that includes the ' I Corinthians 14'worship and sharing time as well. Or to put it another way, the children are, quite simply, as much a part of the church as everyone else, and not in a million years are they supposed to just be 'got out of the way'. And neither should they be ever be viewed as anyone's responsibility, spiritual or otherwise, except their parents. Indeed, it should be the utter delight of parents to have their children with them as much as humanly possible..." Biblical Church, Beresford Job ~We are so thankful God has allowed us to home school and home church our children and see that our grown children value what they were taught, enough to do so themselves. We are so thankful to home church with our daughter and her family, to snuggle grandchildren while we enjoy the fellowship of our brothers and sisters in Christ, enjoy meals and songs and praises together, and lots and lots of wonderful music, and knowing that we are there for each other in spite of our human flaws and problems...and that God has graciously extended to us His grace...sufficient for all."I leave you with this thought: If scripture says something, then whatever that thing is, it is right. Conversely, if something goes against scripture, then whatever that thing is, it is wrong. Therefore, when it comes to church life and practice, who are you going to go with; the Lord Jesus Christ and His written Word, or the traditions of the early Church Fathers? Beresford Job BIBLICAL CHURCH "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine..." John 7:17

Spot on The Shepherd

~"Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ ?Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body: for we all partake of the one bread." I Corinthians 10:16,17 ~We had our gathering in our home tonight. A shared meal, and shared blessings, burdens, prayer, and praises to God. A time of renewal and rejoicing....and remembering. ~I am a lousy shepherdess, and my sheep suffer for it. I do my best, but I am human and no matter how much time and money and experience I lavish on my sheep, I WILL fail them inevitably...because I am a flawed human. Just as those people we trust to shepherd us are human , and flawed, and sometimes even harmful to us...God's sheep.There is a shepherd who will NOT fail us."The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Ps. 23 ~Hubby installed our electric fence today, and I just checked on my flock. They are all spread out in their pen, chewing their cuds with no sign of worry...so I think for the rest of this early morning they are fine. I will go to bed and my Hubby will take my place and check the sheep every so often until the sun breaks. ~ I have been reading a small book by Max Lucado, Safe In The Shepherd's Arms. It is a slim volume and I finished it , but there are a few lines I would like to post here. ~" Have you ever wondered why God gives us so much? We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and gray, we wouldn't have known the difference. But He didn't .

He splashed orange in the sunrise And cast the sky in blue. And if you love to see geese as they gather, chances are you'll see that too. Did He have to make squirrel's tails furry? Was He obliged to make the birds sing? And the funny way that chickens scurry, or the majesty of thunder when it rings? Why give a flower fragrance ? Why give food its taste? Could it be He loves to see that look up on your face?

~If we give gifts to show our love, how much more would He? If we -speckled with foibles and greed-love to give gifts, how much more does God, pure and perfect God, enjoy giving gifts to us? He chose the nails" Blessings: brothers and sisters in Christ,fellowship, electric fencing and Hubby installing it