Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord!

Have you even gone Christmas Caroling?

I used to go Christmas caroling when I was a youngster. One of my favorite hymns was "O Come All Ye Faithful". This is a beautiful rendition  performed by Celtic Woman:

Should We Do Christmas?

Often I think "I should post something on my blog..." and get sidetracked, like I often do, laundry, dishes, going to the post office, getting a few groceries, etc. The reason I began this blog was to put down my private musings and make them public. Perhaps there are others who likewise struggle with all kinds of things that this world presents us with, and likewise cannot make heads or tails out of any of it...well maybe that is too pessimistic, some of it does eventually sort itself out, or it drops out of my consciousness because eventually I come decide it didn't really matter as much as I thought it did after all.

Some of my recent mental wranglings have been over gun ownership vs. gun control, legalism vs. God's grace, Judaism vs. antisemitism, and whether or not to celebrate (Christmas) ... and of course in Christ, if we truly are in Christ there certainly is a measure of freedom in these areas, and yet there is a "right way and a wrong way" in all these things. Since it is so close to Christmas, please permit me, dear reader, to go there, to the topic of Christmas ....

There is so much debating (is that too soft? bantering? bickering? fighting???) on this issue, and truly the way the debates have been going makes me believe more strongly that we indeed are in the very last days prior to the Lord's returning, because there is much confusion and mistrust these days...

One side says Christmas is PAGAN so to even give it a kind nod is going against everything God stands for. It is EVIL!!! Throw it out, mistletoe, Christmas trees, Santas and even Baby Jesus because Jesus wasn't born on December 25th anyway....and the MAS in Christmas points to Catholicism and false worship...

Another side says we should worship and celebrate Jesus incarnation every day, even December 25th regardless of whether that was the day of His birth or not...what's the harm? And these days with so many wanting to reject anything with Jesus in it, isn't it proper, and even more... critical...that we keep the CHRIST in Christmas?

I think you might perceive that I tend toward the second position, although I see no need to have a dead Christmas tree in our home nor statues of Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, etc decorating our home. I'm conflicted about seeing nativities in public places because although I enjoy the reminder of the Bible account of His birth, I don't find support for having idols to His image as needful. I appreciate the Christmas cards and well wishes they bestow on us, and do have them in the living room prominently displayed during this season, and think on the senders when I look at them there.

I agree with the Apostle Paul that we need to be convinced in our own conscience, seek out all the facts about Christmas, why early Christians desired to set one day aside to celebrate Jesus' birth, seek out why some (many?) are so adamantly opposed to the celebrating of Christmas...and then decide for yourself, not so you can beat others over the head for their incorrect celebrating or not celebrating, but so that you can honor the Prince of Peace peacefully in this, and in all things.

image link

Richard Bennet

Richard Bennet was an Irish Catholic priest for 22 years before realizing from his Bible that the Catholic church has it all wrong. In this video he discusses the blasphemy of Catholic teachings and touches on the "Emergent Church" and it's blasphemous teachings, and he doesn't stop there! He talks about Pope Francis and the Jesuit teachings and how they tie in with the Emergent church. You can see his love for the Lord, he's truly inspiring. I hope you will make time to be blessed by this dear brother in Jesus.

The Rest of the Facts Regarding Government Surveillance

Really good video which explains the history of government intrusion into private affairs and the need of personal protection rights as provided in the U.S. Constitution...and the truth about what really goes on while you weren't looking. Anyway, Stefan Molyneux is a secularist, so his conclusions about all of this is different from my own, however the historical facts regarding all of this is good to know.

This video is slightly dated, 2013 and focuses on what was going on with "whistleblower/leaker" Edward Snowden, however the facts are still relevant to what is happening today. I might add that I do not see this, or anything else that the government does wrong, as a reason to plot a mass revolution. I just see this as a thing we need to keep in mind when we want to believe that the government has our best interests in mind. It doesn't. Therefore wanting to put our faith in government... that of our U.S. government, or any other world government, is never wise. I am thankful I have a much better place to put my trust.

Watch Therefore

This week some strange events have been taking place on the west coast that have resulted in Los Angeles International Airport diverting it's flight paths. Please I hope you realize that it is no small thing for an airport to have to alter it's operations this way, so we should pay attention to this "small matter".

I'll link to an ABC news article which mentions this odd occurrence:

http://abc7.com/news/secret-military-operations-to-divert-lax-planes-for-a-week/1072890/

Whether this leads to all out war with the Asia and Russia is up to the Lord, certainly, however it needs to be said that we must keep on the watch, be diligent to watch and pray as Jesus cautions us to do.

Matthew 24:42  Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.(KJV)

 Matthew 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (KJV)

As my husband always reminds me: "No man knows the day nor the hour..." (Matthew 24:36) and indeed every generation since the time of Jesus thought they would see the return of Christ...and indeed every generation WILL see the returning of Jesus because those who have gone "to sleep" will not precede those who are still alive at the time of the Lord's returning:

 1Thessalonians 4:15  For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. (ESV)

So we all are correct in maintaining that vigilance, and would be wise to "watch and pray" that we will be strong in the Lord's strength to endure what is yet to come. I personally believe Jesus is coming within my lifetime, but whether He does or not is truly up to Him. I believe that before He comes things will have gotten so bad that MANY will have given up on His returning, and that times will get much, much darker...as the saying goes, it is always darkest just before the dawn. Mary, the sister of Lazarus thought Jesus came too late, and was sorrowful that He did not come in time to save her brother...was He really too late? It certainly appeared so, but as often is the case, what appears to be a certain thing to our human understanding often is not what really is going on. That is why we need to remain in prayer while we see things going from bad to worse, and not give in to the temptation to give up on what Jesus said to us. Remain vigilant. Keep speaking the truth in love. Watch for His appearing....and of course, always, rejoice in the salvation of our Lord and Savior, our Redeemer, our God Jesus Christ, Lord of all.

Fruit

Today I needed to walk down into town (2 blocks) and decided to walk a bit further...it's a gorgeous day! The sun is out, and there is just enough breeze, not too hot, not too cold, just right!

On the way I decided to see if someone was home, for a nice surprise visit)... I saw....

...an apple tree full of apples!...

...many apples had already fallen to the ground! :(

How can I refuse such a generous offer???

...and they are so delicious too!

I picked them from the tree, not from the ground....I hate waste but not enough to chance picking up bad fruit.

The apple situation got me thinking about Eve in the garden of Eden, and I know, I know, it probably wasn't an apple...(how many other traditions are probably all wrong?)...still...I pondered, the tree, the forbidden fruit, the snake, the beautiful garden, what a tragic loss....and yet, the Lord in His goodness provided a means of recovering what was lost....!!! Yet so many would rather have their forbidden fruit of seeing it their own way, rotten fruit, what a waste!

Genesis 3:8-14 (KJV) And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.   

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him,

 Where art thou?   

And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.   

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 

 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.  

 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? 

And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.   

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, 

Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life...

 They both knew they had done wrong, their guilt caused them to hide from the Lord, and then pass on their guilt to their companions when confronted with it. We still do the same today, even blaming the Lord for our guilt, saying like Paul said we would: "Why did you make us this way, it isn't our fault because you, God, made us to be this way". 

Romans 9:20 (KJV) Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

 And yet the Lord doesn't argue the point with us, though clearly we are wrong. 

Whether it was an apple, or a banana, or an apricot, is not the point...we often look at things in such a manner that we miss the entire lesson that is there for us. No matter what excuses we may come up with to excuse our sin, it is still sin, and there are consequences, and God by His grace and mercy will save some (many?) forgiving sin by His blood shed on a cross, a most cruel punishment, so that we might live forever with Him.

What Are You Celebrating This Week?

Since the Lord's saving me I've never felt right about celebrating a demonically inspired pagan "holiday". I know we have freedom in Christ, however we are also cautioned to not use our freedom as a license for sinning.  Putting a "Christian Face" on it by dressing Trick-or-Treaters as Esther or Jesus doesn't get my vote either, because it attempts to Christianize a pagan festival no matter how you slice it.

Some think the answer is having a "harvest festival" at church, so that the children can have fun in a safe environment and thereby won't be deprived of candy, fun, and games, as if those were the most important things children should learn to base their lives on, not that I'm against "fun" or "games", etc., but how many Christian families even know that the day we celebrate as "harvest festival" or "Halloween" , on the 31 of October in 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis protesting the abuse of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church?

To celebrate this pivotal time in history, let's not "celebrate" with pumpkins and ghouls and witches, but instead turn our hearts in prayerful remembrance of what the reformers went through to bring light to the world that was darkened by an almost Christian religion.

R.C. Sproul has an excellent series on this topic. I hope you will have the wisdom to take the time to listen to these lectures. These videos are packed with information, including some facts about Luther that surprised me, and helped me let go of some popular myths about this wonderful man.

The embeded link below will continue through all 10 videos, but if you desire to watch them separately, you can find them here:

Youtube link to Luther and the Reformation

A Spiritual Revolution

In the following videos Pastor R.C. Sproul gives a very helpful outline in understanding the times we are living in.






He delineates the difference between morals and ethics, today used interchangeably, however, the two are different in an important way, and help to show what is going on in North America.


In the next video Pastor Sproul explains the difference between following Jesus and legalism. The two often get confused for each other.








So, then, in order to avoid legalism, many fall into the opposite and equally wrong problem of antinomianism. What in the world is that???? you might be asking. Well, Pastor Sproul has a very good video that explains it as well :)

Is America a Christian Nation?... Was it a Christian Nation at it's Founding?

This short (30 minute) video is the first in a series given by a much younger (than he is now) R.C. Sproul. Although this was given many years ago, it is just as relevant today if not more so than the day he gave this. That to me is a testament to the truth of the content, that it has stood the test of time. Right at the beginning he cautions his listeners to the mistaken idea that the U.S. is a Christian nation. It is a nation that has been largely influenced by people that believed in the Bible, however having a Christian influence is other than being solidly Christian through and through. I hope you take a listen as he establishes his case for why he says what he does, and gives historical evidence to support these ideas.

Realizing Time is Short

September we had the opportunity to take a trip out west. It was beyond wonderful. While drving along my husband would often pull to the side if there was a good pull out spot. One of the times he did so, I noticed something that looked like a cross at the other end of this lookout spot.

so of course I had to investigate this...

and a closer look revealed...

None of us knows when our time is up. I pray that when the time comes for the Lord to call you home that you will join Him gladly full of thanksgiving for all the goodness He provides, and for the glad moment when He brings us home to be with Him, forever.

Recent Trip Out West

One of the reasons I haven't blogged much lately is because we have had the fortune this year of doing quite a bit of traveling and sight-seeing. One of our recent trips has been to Alberta, Canada. There was so much to see and do! We must have exclaimed "wow!" more than a hundred times each, it was truly spectacular. How anyone can see such awesomeness in God's creation and doubt that there is a very wonderful Creator is truly beyond me.

Today I'll blog a little about the Columbia Ice Fields. This was one of the bigger highlights of that trip. My husband had been planning this trip for more than 6 months, it is something he has been wanting to do for a long time so he wanted to make every second count.

The Columbia Ice Field is located in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is the largest ice field in the North American continent.

We took the "Ice Field Parkway" to get to this, our first destination in our trip out west.

These photos do not do the actual real-life experience of the drive justice...

..but they give you a glimpse of the incredible splendour of what we saw

This chalet style building housed the ticket counters for our icy adventure

as well as two cafeterias (one of them an all-you-can-eat buffet)

washrooms and a gift shop (of course)

and a room where you could watch a video that told all about this ice field

This was our view of the glacier from the parking lot of the "chalet".

From the tour we learned it has diminished by quite a lot from the time it was first discovered

From the above image you can see how much it has receded

in the recent past, and that goes for the depth as well as the length of it 

Our guide explained that the ice reached way up and connected some

of the surrounding mountains halfway up to their peaks 

when it was first discovered in the 1800's.

He showed us an old photograph which was taken at that time.

This is me on the glacier next to our ice field bus. It was gigantic!

The guide explained that the Canadian company which made these buses

made only 23 of them, 22 are used by Brewster

which is the company which provided us this tour. 

The 23rd bus was used by the U.S. for an expedition to Antarctica.
These vehicles reach a maximum speed of a whopping
12 mph!!!! :)
and each tire costs $5,000

I have many other photos that were taken with my camera (these were taken with my cellphone)

however I haven't uploaded them onto my computer yet...so this is all you get, for now...

The ice of the glacier is incredibly thick, several hundred meters thick, 

and contain deep cracks that are covered with snow.

Our guide cautioned us to remain within the marked areas to be safe

because if someone happened to fall into one of these crevasses

 they might not be able to recover him or her. 

Of course we played it safe, but there were a couple adventurous (or stupid?)

people that went beyond the marked areas, however we all made it back to the bus safely.

 It felt much colder on the glacier than it did by the "chalet" building. It must have been

at least 20 degrees colder and the wind blew incessantly.

The guide told us these katabatic winds blow continually over the glacier. 

We also did the skywalk while we were there.

I only took two photos of this with my cellphone:

We had to take another bus to this location. 

This is what the walk looks like upon entering it.

They gave us this hand held device that explained what they wanted to tell about this walk

however I mostly looked at the magnificent landscape

and read a few of the  signs that were mounted along the walk.

link

This is the picture of it that Brewster has on it's website (link provided above)

So, I hope you enjoyed this portion of the incredible journey that we were able to experience on our excursion out west. I hope it inspires you to save your pennies and see this for yourself. You won't be disappointed!

I'll post more highlights of our trip as time allows me. In the meantime, here are some links if you'd like to learn more about this beautiful natural wonder:

http://www.earthsciencescanada.com/geovista/PDFs_en/vistas8_agci.pdf

 http://www.britannica.com/place/Columbia-Icefield

 http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/jasper/activ/explore-interets/glacier-athabasca.aspx

A Break From Blogging...

I have had so much going on the past few weeks, and I am very sorry that I have been unable to keep up with blogging, however, I shall return to it in the next day or two, both on this blog and my Bible Treasures and Pearls. These days I find time is running shorter, and sense the urgency to share the truth of the gospel. I know that I will never convince those who have set their minds and hearts against it, but am in hopes that the Lord will be able to use my meager offerings to perhaps bring back a few lost sheep to His fold....so I hope you will continue to persevere and join up with me again in a couple of days. :)  Blessings my friends...and my enemies also ;)

A Much Needed Message for Today

I also posted about this sermon on my other blog (see sidebar ----> ), I give a bit more of an introduction to this video there. Hope you take time to listen to this urgent message:


It's Evening in Sodom from Grace Chapel on Vimeo.

The Donnellys

Last weekend my husband and I decided to go for a drive, spur of the moment.
It was a beautiful day out, perfect day really.

We drove by Grand Bend, home of Coco's...not familiar? Check out this review of their reality show:
http://www.theobserver.ca/2012/04/27/grand-benders-reality-tv-show-set-in-party-town

I didn't take any pictures there, too many people, too many cars, all we wanted to do was leave. One day we'll stop there and maybe even grab a burger at Coco's :)

As we slowly meandered about here and there, we found ourselves in Lucan. What's special about Lucan, you might ask...? Well it seems pretty ordinary at first glance. There was a little museum that did not look all that interesting from the outside...

My husband asked me "Have you ever heard of the Donnellys?"

My answer simply "No."

He grinned a huge grin and asked "Want to go into the museum?"

....ok...

First thing you see upon entering the museum is a huge replica of a tombstone. the Donnelly family tombstone. I didn't take a photo of the copy of the original, but I found a photo of the original one online:

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?id=93887&b=1

This photo only shows the bottom half

It's about 9 or 10 feet tall

The story goes that they had to remove the original because people came from miles around to take chips off of it for souvenirs. Now the graveyard has replaced the original with this one:

Chunks have been taken off this one too (mostly off the back, which I didn't get a picture of, guess you'll have to go visit it yourself if you don't believe me), so changing the tombstone did not discourage the pilferers. There were coins and odd little trinkets on top of the tombstone. And what was with the coins and trinkets on top of the tombstone? I've never seen coins on other tombstones here....another mystery that the Donnelly museum has the answer for! (the answer can also be found at link near the bottom of this post)

This is a photo that was taken of Jenny Donnelly. The Donnelly museum had this photo on display with this information attached; that she was born in 1856 and died just short of her 60th birthday in 1916, and that the tombstone where she is buried has the date of her death incorrect. I'll have to see if I can locate it (now that I'm this deep into their story) and see it for myself.

If you would like to find out what is so interesting about the Donnellys, you can find a bit of info here:
 http://www.donnellys.com/mainpage.html

 Excerpt from the website:
 donnellys.com was created in 1997 for anyone interested in the Donnellys, Canada's notorious family, that was murdered by a vigilante committee near Lucan, Ontario, on February 4th, 1880. 2014 marks the 134th anniversary of the Biddulph Tragedy, as it came to be known.

Find out the answers to some commonly asked questions about the Donnellys!

WHAT is so Official about this web site?
WHY were the Donnellys called the "Black Donnellys"?
WHERE is the original  tombstone today?
WHY do people leave coins on the tombstone?
WHO has made a movie about the Donnellys?

The answers can be found here: http://www.donnellys.com/Questions.htm

After such a nice day out and about, we had a very nice dinner, and the evening was just as lovely as the day was, so we decided to drive some more to our favorite ice cream shop for dessert...

A couple of shots of the evening sky...

There are so many interesting stories to be learned about the world around us, I would love to learn about them all.  Lord knows I won't learn about them all, however He has included the most important ones that we should learn about in His book, the Bible. I hope you enjoyed out little outing, and maybe you learned a little bit more about this interesting world we live in.

Road Trip

Very recently, we went on a road trip....it was a spur of the moment  thing, we were home relaxing and hubby says "What do you want to do....stay home? go to Chicago? go to Niagara Falls?....or how about a road trip?" So we packed up and went....

to Erie Pennsylvania...

the water was calm and beautiful, the sky was amazing

some people fishing off the end of the little pier

memorial to all who fought in the battle of Lake Erie in the war of 1812...it's interesting to me how the story is told so differently on the other side of the border...

this restaurant looked so cute, we considered eating here...

so we walked by for a closer look...
 we casually glanced to see what the customers were being served
and when we walked further
we noticed the kitchen door open...
and decided not to eat here...

 we hoped to take a ride on this boat...
we got here just as it was leaving on final trip of the day...
just missed it,
but we were here to enjoy come what may
that's what happens on spur of the moment trips
sometimes things are better left undone...

After spending the night in Erie,
we continued on to New York...
saw this exit for Mexico (in state of New York)...
so my hubby says
"look, hon, we can go to Mexico"
:)

Most of our trip was on the interstate, we had decided to go around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, therefore I thought we would see much of the lakes from the road...sigh....When we reached Watertown, New York my DH decided to look for a road that went by the water...we drove and drove and drove along a road that according to the map went right along the water's edge...but we saw farms, and huge trees, and houses, and shops, and no water...we were headed east so we decided to give it a try going west...and it went on for several miles, until we found....

 water!
With a name like Sackets Harbour we knew it had to have some!

After spending the night in Watertown, we headed back home...

we took the bridges that connect

New York with Wellesley Island (U.S.)

 and 

the bridge that connects Wellesley Island with Hill Island (Canada)

and the third bridge connects Hill Island with Ontario Canada

something I love about driving along the 401
you get these same kind of rock formations along the side of the road....
it's where the road crew had to blast away part of a hill
to make way for the road,
the effect is beautiful!

on Hill Island

back on Canada's mainland.

If you want to know more about the bridges that connect New York, the two islands, and Canada,

you can find out more about it here

Hope you enjoyed our trip with us :D

In Real Life...Update

A couple of updates on what is going on in my "real life" world, outside of cyberspace...

My love for the Lord seems to ever increase, even with (especially with?) the terrible things I see going on, people who maintain they were "true Christians" and now say they don't believe in Jesus or the Bible and even post on Hinduism (for crying out loud) when you don't believe the truth you'll fall for anything, eh? I get so much peace and comfort from reading the scriptures, a peace that truly goes beyond my intellect or understanding, and I am truly thankful and content with life, and pray that no matter what happens, with everything going down the tubes so quickly anymore, that the Lord will be my strength and my shield when tshtf, that I won't give in to save my flesh...

So anyway, here are a couple of things that are going on here at our house...

Recently there was a townwide yard sale...but as these things sometimes go, it poured rain all day of the event. We were thinking of participating in it, but my husband decided to put it off for next year, and good thing because it was quite a rain and we have no tent...some diehards were out there in the rain with tents and I did go to a couple of their homes...I purchased a nice shelf for eight bucks!

At another house there was exercise equipment...I asked hubby about it, he said he already had plans for my exercise equipment and surprised me with a gift a few days ago...

Yeah, ok, very funny honey... :)

The garden is doing nicely however the weeds are doing best of all...I had decided last year that I would try my hand at doing it all from cuttings and seeds, so my plants, although they are doing well, are still small:

 The two scraggly looking plants are herbs: rosemary, watercress, basil, chives and cilantro (the tallest plant), okay they don't seem to be doing so great....started the herbs from seeds.

These are mostly all from seed, a few are from cuttings, my petunias (from seed) are growing well however still have not flowered...an aunt who has a gorgeous flowering garden credits Miracle Grow plant food...may have to go get some of that, been using an off brand plant food, some things just require spending the extra bucks.

These by our front door are also from cuttings, the red flowers are begonias that I rescued when they were hanging plants downtown. They are doing very well! The Dutch in me loves the fact that they were free! Bonus!

Yesterday I found this dead mole in our grass...

I truly never knew they have such an ugly snout!

And all that gardening leaves my joints more achey than ever, so when I saw an article promising relief from joint discomfort by drinking gelatin in water I had to give it a try. I had some last night; used half a packet in a glass of water, and had some again first thing in the morning. I must say that I noticed relief in my hands and feet this morning. Yesterday my feet were so stiff I hobbled around the house like I was 80 years old (sorry to any 80 year old who doesn't hobble that may be reading this). I have arthritis and joint pain from the wear and tear on my body from pushing heavy x-ray equipment and heavy patients; back pain, shoulder pain, pain in my hips...so I thought I might notice a slight benefit and any slight benefit would be a wonderful and welcome thing. This morning I walked down our staircase without having to brace myself compared with yesterday when I had to hang on to the walls as I painfully descended them....and my hands, I was barely able to close them yesterday, today I even can clench my fist tightly which I was unable to do yesterday because of the previous stiffness. I do still notice slight stiffness in my fingers but nothing like it was before starting this. Thank the Lord for this find! As a side note, the joint  cartilage which wears away as we age is made of the same material that makes up the myelin sheath which encase our nerves, so I also see this having potential benefit for nerve pain.

Anyway, you have been updated! Praise the Lord for His goodness, mercy and grace! He is worthy of our thanksgiving and praise! :)