Valentines Day Sweethearts

I love these people:

by sweetheart for 33 years Tom

my baby Matt

my first born Andy, his wife Kelly, and granddaughter Amelia (obviously we don't take enough pictures... I wanted to show individual pictures of Andy and Kelly or maybe even a couples picture of them, but I didn't have any!)

my precious granddaughter Amelia!

Bible Study Exodus 3-5

This last week Andy, Kelly, Tom, and I were discussing the verses in the Bible that say God harden their or Pharaoh's heart. These verses have always bothered me because they seem to be saying that God made their hearts be hard... that just doesn't fit in with a God who is love, full of mercy and grace, and has given us "free will". Our conclusion was that although we believe in the infallibility of God's word as written in the original text the translations that we read may not be as accurate.

So today I am reading Exodus 3-5 and came across one of the verse that talks about God hardening.

Exodus 4:21: God said to Moses, “When you get back to Egypt be prepared: All the wonders that I will do through, you 'll do before Pharaoh. But I will make him stubborn so that he will refuse to let the people go. (as paraphrased in The Message)

For those of you that prefer the King James translation: And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

I looked up these words in The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible:

harden #2388 chazaq (chaw-zak) it comes from the root word that means to fasten, seize, bind, restrain...It means to aid, amend, control, harden, make strong...

the entry below it was #2389 chazaq (chaw-zawk) it comes from the chazaq #2388 it is usually used in a bad senseand it means: to harden, inpudent, stiff hearted

They look the same as I have typed them, but that is because I can't put the ^ above the letters. In #2388 there is an ^ over the first a and in #2389 there is an ^ over both a's.

so that #834 'ashar (aw-shar') means: after, so that, which, until...

Maybe a better paraphrase of the verse would be: God said to Moses, “When you get back to Egypt, be prepared: All the wonders that I do through you, you'll do before Pharaoh. But I will strengthen the resolve of his hard heart and he will refuse to let them go.

I think that God was telling Moses that he needed to know and be prepared for that even though he was going to do all these miracles before Pharaoh that he wasn't going to let the Israelites go. God wasn't saying that He was making Pharaoh's heart hard, but that He was going to give him the strength to follow his hard heart even after seeing the miracles.

This paraphrase seems consistent with the God I know. A God that gives free will to everyone so that they can decide whether to choose for believe in God or to reject Him. His desire is for everyone to believe, but He will not make anyone believe—or disbelieve. II Peter 3:9 says:

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

Look forward to any comments with your thoughts. Love you, MB

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday

fireplace

We bought our home in September. The house was built in 1988. We will be in the process of re-decorating for several months... maybe even years! I will try to take before and after pictures and write about our progress.

This is how the fireplace looked when we first viewed the house.The fireplace is brown-orange brick. It has a stain wood mantle and brass fireplace doors.

We had the brick painted white and painted the doors black.

The finished product!

We love it!

Great Ice Storm of 2011

It had been such a long time since I have been in an ice storm. I hate hearing that the ice is coming. I hate the thought of all the wrecks, the cars and semi's that end up in the ditches along the road, people stranded, the madhouse at the grocery stores--if you think it is bad to have to shop during the crunch, you should try it from the prospective of the clerks...forever seared into my memory from my years of working for Kroger!--, and then the thoughts of losing power.

When we lived in the house on the hill in Illinois, we were on a well. That meant when we lost the power we also lost water...toilets! Luckily, while we lived there we had snow storms and freezing weather, but never a big ice storm. We lost power a couple of times, but just for a few hours, never days! I have to admit that because we are on public utilities, I don't dread storms as much as I did. I do remember to thank God for this blessing and usually lift up a prayer for those who are on wells!

Then the storm starts and I start worrying about my family. Once I talk to everyone and know that they are all safe in their homes, I can relax. This is usually the time I start enjoying myself. Yes, enjoying myself. I am one of those people that loves storms. I love wind, lightning, thunder, snow, and rain. Watching a storm always reminds me of the power and sovereignty of God. I know that God could speak and the wind, lightning, thunder, snow, and rain would obey His command! Just one word. Amazing!

But even more amazing to me is that the God who has that kind of power is also the God who loves me and holds me in the hallow of His hand. Truly amazing!

Pictures from the Ice Storm of 2011:

Front porch after 10 minutes of chipping way

3"x 3" cleared!

Wordless Wednesday