When the storm rolls in And the wind is cold, When sorrow breaks in And your heart feels old When the ache is internal And more than you can bear, When emotions are a whirlwind Know that He is there. More steady than The ground upon which you stand Ever offering stability If you'll reach out your hand. Beyond your insecurities, Hesitation and doubt Reach out for His help How've you managed without? Fear the unknown or the unpopular Is a sad excuse To continue on the chaos treadmill With no destination, what's the use? You know He exists, Believe He's real, But base all your decisions On what you think and feel. Tell me now, is that wisdom Or the way of a fool? Disregarding an inexhaustible resource Because it really seems uncool. If you dislike religion, don't fret. That's not what you need. You've heard the gospel Now water that seed. |
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While reading through the Reese Chronological Bible, the following passages raised a question of potential contradiction in the Old Testament of the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, so how does this passage hold up? If it's historical fact, it can't contradict. Let's take a look . . . The issue in question here was what day Solomon "sent the people away." Looking at the portions in italics above, in 1 Kings 8, it sounds as though Solomon sent people away on the 8th day. In 2 Chronicles 7, one might think he sent people away on the "three and twentieth" or 23rd day. Hmm, 8 and 23 are not the same. Both passages are discussing a 14 day event. The underlined portions of the passages above offer clarity to what was going on. There were seven days of the dedication of the altar, and seven days of the feast. That explains more detail for our 14 days, but it gets really confusing when you consider that 2 Chronicles 7 says there was a solemn assembly on the eighth day. Wait a minute, 1 Kings 8 said the people were sent away on the eighth day... which was it: a solemn assembly or the people went away? The key is to keep track of where you're supposed to start counting. Are we counting from the beginning of the 7 day dedication of the altar, from the first part of the 7 day feast, or from the first day of the month? I want you to be aware that the seventh month of the Jewish calendar which would have been used at the time of this writing is not the same as our calendar at all, but for the sake of a convenient and tangible example, I am going to use a template calendar for the month of July (our seventh month, since the seventh month is specified in 2 Chronicles 7:10) to show how these verse, while confusing, are not conflicting. On the calendar below, rather than writing out "dedication of the altar" I have labeled those days as simply "festival". (You can click on the image to see a larger version.) We need to pay special attention to the fact that 2 Chronicles 7:10 says the "three and twentieth day of the seventh month", which is giving us the date on the calendar. In our example, we're using this as July 23 rather than trying to figure out the differences between our calendar and the Jewish calendar since this is just an example for illustrative purposes. Since we aren't told the day the festival begins, we start by working backwards.We know that on three and twentieth day of the seventh month the people were sent away. From here, we can count backwards. If the three and twentieth day was the final day when people left, and it was also considered the eighth day (of the feast) according to 1 Kings 8:66. This means the day prior was the 7th day of the feast, and so on and so forth, reaching the first day of the feast (not of the dedication of the altar part of the festival, we aren't there yet!) which lands on July 16th in our example. Since we know that it is a 14 day event, we then immediately mark the 15th of July as the 7th day of the dedication of the altar, remembering that 2 Chronicles 7:9 explained clearly there were 7 days of dedication of the altar and seven days of feasting.
Okay, we've marked the eighth day that was mentioned in 1 Kings 8:66, but not the eighth day mentioned in 2 Chronicles 7:9. This eighth day is placed on my example calendar above as being the eighth day into the event, so the day following the seven days of the dedication of the altar. This could have been when they had the solemn assembly. Alternately, the solemn assembly could also have been placed on July 23 of this calendar, if they counted it as the eighth day of the feast (rather than of the event) and held the solemn assembly prior to dismissing the people, but this would have meant the people were busy doing something or another for 15 calendar days rather than 14. In case the calendar graphic above isn't helpful to you, I will include the following which has a (not to scale) linear visual: The onions give this chowder a great flavor that simply can't be captured with the bland photo, but I would encourage you to give this simple recipe a try. If you do have a taste for stronger seasonings afterward, any topping that goes well on a baked potato would be a great addition to this chowder!
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to maintain a low simmer & stir occasionally. Cook until potatoes begin to soften and SOME of them fall apart as you stir, which will thicken the water to become a chowder. If you overcook, you'll end up with no chunks of potato at all- your choice, but we enjoy the texture if there are still some chunks of potato.
If desired, you can serve with a dollop of DF butter (we like Earth Balance Original Buttery Spread in the tub, not the sticks). If you have good red potatoes (that have more of a yellow interior rather than a white) you won't even need butter to make this a savory chowder, great for a chilly day and much more filling than a standard soup. *If you skip this step in recipes, for a throw-it-all-in meal, you're running the risk of having stronger, possibly crunchy or chewy onions in your end result, which is not the goal. Many times onions or other veggies are called to be sauteed first, and there is a reason! It is so simple, but I need to remind myself to use these puppies. When we first went gluten-free, someone suggested using rice cakes instead of bread for sandwiches. We were so excited, then we tried it. Ummmm, deli meat on one of these- with no small amount of Miracle Whip/mayo/Vegenaise- it still was not cutting it. But, over time, we discovered that they are a great way to serve up peanut butter & jelly, or peanut butter & banana (or try thinly sliced apple & a dash of cinnamon like pictured below). You could skip the peanut butter and just squash down the banana, and then throw on some sliced strawberries, a few grapes, or, if you are having a rough day (or don't need an excuse to indulge) add a few chocolate chips to the top. Yum!. My son saw me working on this picture and ran to make himself one. Here I thought the picture was rather unappetizing... guess not to him!
Last year we used Diana Waring's History Revealed curricula titled "Ancient Civilizations and the Bible" and this year we are using "Romans, Reformers & Revolutionaries". I love the curricula, which is a structured, yet flexible unit study rolled into textbook format for easy implementation. I love that geography is included in the "Maps & Mapping" sections, but I find grading these assignments to be a little cumbersome. I wanted to ensure that my student was following and completing all of the directions, but I found it time consuming to flip from the unit/phase where the Student Text was displayed giving the instructions back to the answer key provided. The answer key is a filled-in map, but how was I supposed to make sure I didn't overlook something? I made a checklist for each Maps & Mapping section that we've done so far & I will share them here for download as a .pdf :
Click here to watch a young lady's spoken word poetry which touches none too gently on the subject of social media and technology use.Sorry I couldn't get the above video to embed, but it is worth watching!! Here's another (below) by a different artist and loaded with admonition and encouragement for sticking with it and not giving up despite those around your or a failing system: |
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January 2022
Blog Hopping?I am not much of a blog reader. There's only a couple I check on occasion:
HisPoetry.blogspot.com Love this girl's writing... feels like she's a long distance friend. Well, her sister is my long-distance friend, so that probably helps. Either way, what an inspiration and encouragement- you just need to check out some of the places life has taken Leah and be strengthened and inspired by the love that oozes (yes, oooozes) from her heart for Jesus, His people and His creation! chocolatecoveredkatie.com If you like nummy recipes, or have special dietary needs (or both!) check it out. ALL of her recipes are Vegan, and many can be made gluten-free. I stumbled upon it when searching for dairy/egg free treats to make for my kiddo and have gotten hooked on several recipes. Okay, "hooked on" doesn't portray it well enough. How about "addicted to"? That's more fitting. Will definitely be going back for more! |