Worship Loudly

Nehemiah 12:27-47 KJV

27 And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps. 28 And the sons of the singers gathered themselves together, both out of the plain country round about Jerusalem, and from the villages of Netophathi; 29 Also from the house of Gilgal, and out of the fields of Geba and Azmaveth: for the singers had builded them villages round about Jerusalem. 30 And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall. 31 Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate: 32 And after them went Hoshaiah, and half of the princes of Judah, 33 And Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam, 34 Judah, and Benjamin, and Shemaiah, and Jeremiah, 35 And certain of the priests' sons with trumpets; namely, Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Michaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph: 36 And his brethren, Shemaiah, and Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God, and Ezra the scribe before them. 37 And at the fountain gate, which was over against them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the going up of the wall, above the house of David, even unto the water gate eastward. 38 And the other company of them that gave thanks went over against them, and I after them, and the half of the people upon the wall, from beyond the tower of the furnaces even unto the broad wall; 39 And from above the gate of Ephraim, and above the old gate, and above the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel, and the tower of Meah, even unto the sheep gate: and they stood still in the prison gate. 40 So stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God, and I, and the half of the rulers with me: 41 And the priests; Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets; 42 And Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer. 43 Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off. 44 And at that time were some appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for the offerings, for the firstfruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities the portions of the law for the priests and Levites: for Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Levites that waited. 45 And both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God, and the ward of the purification, according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son. 46 For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God. 47 And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day his portion: and they sanctified holy things unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron.

The wall is complete and the Israelites desire to dedicate not only it to God, but also to return to full use of the temple. They bring the people together and worship God with song.

There are two choirs who walk on top of the wall singing praises until they meet at the temple. This must have been loud and the sound reached many places. All those around the city would have hard not only that the wall was complete, but they would have heard their worship of God.

What a testimony! This makes me think of how our church's partner church in Guatemala worships-doors wide open with lots of microphones so the whole neighborhood can hear!

In addition to this loud worship, they ensured the continued worship in the temp by providing for the needs of the temp and the priests. They made sure everything was in place to return to the standards set before by David and Solomon.

This makes me examine how we worship. Do people hear us worship? Do we provide for the needs of our churches? That provision is a form of worship, too.

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Proverbs 23:4

Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

What really caught my eye in this verse is the second part. The world will tell you that money, and lots of it, will fix your problems. However, riches are temporary. Yes, it may make aspects of our lives on earth easier, but it will not solve all our problems. God gave us brains to use, but that doesn't mean that we always know best. Our wisdom is nothing compared to God's wisdom.

Marriage Moment Monday

Don't be so busy doing things that you don't have time to pray! Prayer is the most important thing you can do for your marriage.

Sunday Psalms

Psalms 33:1-22 KJV 

1 Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. 

2 Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. 

3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise. 

4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth. 

5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. 

6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 

7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. 

8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 

9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. 

10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. 

11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. 

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 

13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 

14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 

15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works. 

16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 

17 An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. 

18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; 

19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. 

20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. 

21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. 

22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

Up-cycle Sewing

Even though I have two five-shelf bookshelves filled with fabric, it sometimes happens that a child asks for something to be made that I don't have either the right color or enough of the color the child is requesting. This is what happened when my 3 year old had her birthday.

I always try to make (although sometimes I purchase) a dress for my girls for their birthdays. My 3 year old for some reason has grown a love for the color orange. I knew that she wanted her birthday dress to have orange in it and since she was in need of more clothing, I figured I would make some dresses for her birthday gift and they might as well be orange, too.

Since I didn't have much fabric with orange, I had to start looking. Anyone who sews or who has purchased fabric lately knows that fabric is not cheap and making clothes isn't always cheaper than purchasing because of the price of fabric. Well, God provided fabric for me through our local thrift store!

"Pillowcase" dress in which I added small sleeves
from the fitted sheet.

I found a twin fitted sheet that was orange and pink striped for only $1. The next week, I found an orange pillowcase ($ .50) and orange flat sheet ($1). I now had lots of orange to work with since I was up-cycling from previous products! I also still have lots of fabric left to make more clothes for her in the future!

We had been given the "Birthday Girl" shirt, but
since my daughter is long waisted, it was too
short to use as a shirt so I turned it into a dress.

I did end up purchasing orange thread. I could have made any of these dresses work by using either white or pink, but it wasn't the look I wanted. Of course, that one spool of thread will last through many more uses so I didn't mind spending it. In any case, I spent less than $5 for three dresses (plus material to make more)!

I love the frugality of up-cycling as well how much better it is for the environment. It also sometimes helps with time management because I can use things like the hemmed edges, or in the case of the last dress, half the dress was already done. Besides, it is just fun to give new life to something that most people just discard.

Do you enjoy up-cycling? I would love to see some creations you have made from up-cycling (and it doesn't have to be sewing related).

School Planning

As I have mentioned before, I am pretty much set with our schooling for this year. We plan on starting September 17th. One of the things I had been putting off was creating our schedule for the day. It is usually one of the most stressful things to try to figure out who will practice piano when, the individual lessons for the younger children, who will cook meals on what nights, etc. so I just kept procrastinating. Well, I knew with us starting in two weeks and the baby possibly deciding to arrive before then that I shouldn't put it off any longer.

So, earlier this week I poured myself a glass of Plexus Slim and sat at my computer and got to work. I am surprised at how quickly I was able to work out all the details. What normally takes me an hour to start with and then a week of revamping, I had done in about an hour. I did have two of my older girls look over it to see if I had missed something or made any mistakes, and I had made a few small mistakes, but those took less than 15 minutes to figure out and fix.

The interesting thing is that I did this in the afternoon. For as long as I can remember (for at least the past 20 years), afternoons have always been the hardest for me to accomplish anything. I usually hit the wall around 2:30 in the afternoon and need to take a nap (and by nap, I mean at least an hour nap). I used to figure if I don't get it done before lunch, it wouldn't get done because after lunch I just slow down. I didn't sit down (which means I had been busy until then) until about 3:00 in the afternoon to start working on the schedule and I was alert and could think clearly. Even after finishing the schedule, I worked on some laundry, picked up around the house, and helped get dinner ready.

I attribute this change to my body healing and to the natural energy that comes from the natural ingredients. I never had the sustained energy I now experience from drinking a cup (or two) of coffee! I'm sure my family appreciates how much more I am able to accomplish in a day. One would think that a mother of soon to be 13 would be experiencing more and more tiredness, not more and more energy. I am so thankful God led me to Plexus to help me with the ministry of motherhood to which He has called me.

For those who are interested in what we do for schooling, here is a brief explanation. We use the Robinson Curriculum as the base for our education. I have taken the Robinson book list and adapted it for our needs. Some of the books I replaced with books on the same topic that we already owned. I also added some books that I feel are important for my children to read. We also do not follow Saxon math all the way through as so far my girls aren't planning on college, but rather would like to own their own businesses or hope their future husbands own their own businesses. Instead of the higher level Saxon math, we have them do a year of personal finance (using Dave Ramsey's Financial Foundations) and then a year of business math (Rod & Staff's Recordkeeping). We also always do a separate Bible class, but we have not decided for sure what we are doing for this year. I am waiting for my husband to make the final call on a particular study. If he hasn't decided by the time we start school, I have a few options of short studies we can do until he decides.

I kept my oldest (who graduated this past summer) on the schedule for this year as she will be helping around the house and possibly with some of the schooling when she isn't working outside the home. I decided not to add the baby on the schedule because the baby will just be eating and sleeping most of the day and we'll just work that in our schedules (that and I'm running out of space if I want to keep it all on one page!).

If you have any questions about Plexus or our schooling, please feel free to ask!

Wisdom

What is the purpose of education?

I am pretty much ready for us to start our school year, but I still have to decide on a Bible curriculum and finalize details on a few other things. We plan on starting mid-September (unless the baby decides to make it's entrance then) so I have a few more weeks yet. The beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility to adjust our schedule and since the older girls are still working and we are busy with canning, freezing, etc., we decided to give ourselves some time before delving into formal schoolwork (because learning to preserve food and run a home is learning!). As I have been working on the new school year, I have been pondering a few things.

"For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." ~ Proverbs 8:11 

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." ~ Proverbs 9:10

"For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." ~Proverbs 2:6

"For whoso findeth me [wisdom] findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the LORD." ~Proverbs 8:35

I need to keep these verses in mind as I finish planning the school year.

A relationship with Christ is much more important than high grades. I ned to focus on discipleship more than academics. This was made even more apparent to me as we graduated our oldest this past summer. I am so proud of her growth in Christ much more than her academic growth. She is much more ready for the real world due to her relationship with Christ than she would have been with more worldly knowledge and no relationship.

Words of Wisdom Wednesdays

Proverbs 22:7

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

I was raised that debt was normal. I didn't see how enslaving it was until after we had our first child and I wanted to become a stay-at-home mother. We couldn't do what God was calling me to do because of payments. It wasn't until a few years later that I was able to quit my job and even then we had some pretty hard times. We couldn't give to others the way our hearts desired either. Even now, we would love to do more for God's kingdom, but my husband is tied down to a job that makes X amount so we can pay our house payments. We are striving to get the house paid off early so we are free for God to use us as He wills.

Family Minded

I have been thinking about not posting sermons on my blog anymore (they would still be found at our church's facebook page), but then my husband preached on Titus 2 and I knew I had to share at least one more sermon here.

Marriage Moment Monday

What Do You Want?