Are we good at math?  Statistics?  Probability?  Reasoning? Here's today's question: What is the probability, and what are the odds that a tiny nation (about) the size of New Jersey...(for example, The United States is 450 times larger than New Jersey, and Russia is about 779 times larger than New Jersey)... ...What is the probability that a nation, (about) the size of New Jersey will become like  a cup (drink)  that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling ? Israel is about the size of New Jersey, and yet... Do we have any stats on a nation about the size of New Jersey becoming like  an immovable rock for all the nations.  On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations.   All who try to move it will injure themselves.  ~Zechariah 12:3 What are the odds (have we ever heard of such a thing) that  every (enemy)  horse (against the country the ...

We had a garage sale this week, and there are so many pieces involved with an event like that, and I wasn't ready.  The night before, I stood frozen and overwhelmed amongst (literally) countless piles of bagged clothing and goods of every sort in our garage.  Feeling (uncharacteristically) helpless and frozen, I looked to my husband and begged his help in where to start, and what to do.  Lovingly and with insight, he established a plan, and we got in motion and in the Spirit .   For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  ~2 Timothy 1:7 I was (unusually) overwhelmed initially, and I knew that was not  of God.  But as we prayed and prepped things...I knew He was here .   (Of course God is always here, but sometimes we miss Him, or we allow other things, or our emotions to supercede Him.)   When I awoke for the first morning of the garage sale after only four hours of sleep, somethin...

Churning ... Are we stirring/striving/stressing about something?  Churning ...Are we constantly thinking, plotting, lamenting, coveting, hurting about it...? "For as churning cream produces butter... ”  ~Proverbs 33:30   Our churning of self-pity produces self-entitlement, anger , wrath, and strife .    No more poor me's today: Just Jesus's way today. An angry person stirs up conflict,  and a hot-tempered person commits many sins.  ~Proverbs 29:22  My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,  ( 20)  because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.  ~James 1:19-20   Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,  for anger resides in the lap of fools.  ~Ecclesiastes 7:9    Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  ( 32)  Be kind and ...

How long? How long are we doing to do this?  Can we keep it up...this living for the Lord and praising Him with our lips and lives?   How long?  (Will we keep keeping-after the Lord?) Are we tired today?   Well, buckle back up and let's not give up on God.   How long ?   ...as long as we live, and till our dying breath.  Let's keep praising God until then .  He sure deserves it. I will praise the Lord as long as I live.   I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.  ~Psalm 146:1 How long?  Until we can't no more.   That's how long we as God's sons and daughters ought to be fueled and encouraged to praise Him.   ~~~ D on’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.  ( 4) When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.  ~Psalm 146:3-4 You don't need me to explain or develop these verses.  First...

I have been spending some evenings lately making salsa.  The Summer weather has produced Summer vegetables, including tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, green peppers, cilantro and garlic.  If you combine (any combination) of these harvest items--they create a tasty salsa, which has been a favorite snack/condiment/meal-topping in our home lately. The first batch of salsa that I made took hours , literally, because it takes time  to cut and core tomatoes and to chop peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro.  (And we had a hearty harvest of items!).  It took time (and love), but my husband and kids enjoyed the salsa-result, and so of course it was worth it. But when a second bunch of salsa-making-ingredients found its way to my kitchen counter-top to be "processed"...I felt exhausted just thinking about the process. But then I had an idea.   I got out my food processor, and veggie by veggie, I quickly threw in (almost-whole) items, which too...

Sometimes we learn what TO  do by learning what not  to do. ~~~ The prophets in the Bible tell of things to come (and the prophet  Zechariah is no different) ...but what do  Zechariah's words  mean for us as we live in the world today ?   The visions that God gives  Zechariah  define what will be  one day .   But what else is within Zechariah 's words... for us today? If we read the Bible and look beyond literal meanings (which will come to pass), we can also interpret and receive what else God is saying--as is the case with the verses in Zechariah 11.   It is not so much what  Zechariah is saying...as it is the  opposite of what He is saying.  God gives  Zechariah the idea, the timing, even the shepherd ...but nothing about that shepherd is what God prefers.   And so, s ometimes we learn what to do by learning what not to do. Zechariah Chapter 11  highlights a poor (negative) sh...