By Faith - Abel, Enoch and Noah

Last time I had a chance to sit down and do devotions I had started in Hebrews 11, today I get to continue that study. :)

⁴By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. ⁵By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. ⁷By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By Faith - Abel
Abel and Cain, one of the first stories we find in the bible. Cain kills Abel because he's jealous and angry. God disciplined him for doing so and he's forced to wander the earth forever. But in this passage God speaks not of Cain, but of Abel. Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice. As we read in Genesis:

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. ³In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.

Because Abel brought the right sacrifice to God, he was commended as righteous, so even though he died for it, his action still speaks to us today.

As some of you know, I raise rabbits. ah...but I do like my bunnies. they are fun, challenging, help provide some income and such like. And sometimes I ponder...what would it be like to give up...just give it up the best of what I have, the one that I've longed for. Butcher and present to the Lord the firstborn of what you have raised. Not so easy I think, yet Abel did it...and from what I read he did so willingly. A hard thing. I have a rabbit in my herd that I bred her myself and I've people wanting to buy her...but I'm so inordinately proud of that rabbit. Sell her? Ah...that's a tough one, but give her up willingly...naw...that's not something that would be so easy to do. And farmers would have a tough time with that too. The first born..the one that shows what you're doing, you're doing right, and then to sacrifice that to God. That shows a truly thankful heart. Abel's action declared him righteous to God. I want my heart to be that willing.

By Faith - Enoch

⁵By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

By faith, Enoch didn't die. God took him straight up to heaven. Why? Because he pleased God. Simple reason. Why did he please God? He had faith.

Faith is what is necessary to please God. Faith is what is necessary to draw us closer to God and to want to seek him out.

Wow...is that ever speaking to my heart this morning. Faith is what causes ME to seek God. Even as I stumble, doubt myself, doubt my relationship with God it all comes back to this.... my faith in God's existence, in who God is, is what causes me to seek after him. This God finds pleasing. Wow....my faith pleases God.

By Faith - Noah

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Noah obeyed God without seeing the cause for it. In reverent fear he built an ark. This huge boat and he built it because God told him to. He saved his household but condemned the world. Laughed at, mocked, for years (100 or so they think it took him) he simply obeyed God and built an ark. That's perseverance, that's faith, that's holy fear of the Lord.

Makes me wonder....what will I do for God? What might God ask of me? And what in faith will I be willing to endure?

Tomato Sauce - my version

I've learned over the years that there is a plethora of tomato sauce recipes out there.

I've learned that what one calls "from scratch" and what someone else calls from scratch is also quite different.

This is my Version of tomato sauce made this year.

Take your tomatoes. skin them. If doing yellow ones... learn from my mistake. They DO NOT need to blanched as long as red tomatoes. Do them too long and they become mush and you waste a fair amount. REALLY easy to squeeze the seeds out of them though.

Smoosh out the seeds, be as anal as you'd like about getting the seeds out (or not). :)

Stick them in your food processor and process until pureed with some lumpiness. You don't want it to be totally smooth. Lumpier is better than smoother.

Measure out 8-12 cups of pureed tomatoes.

FINELY dice
- two bell peppers - colour unimportant : i like to do one yellow and one red. But have been known to do two red, two green, two yellow...basically whatever is ready in the garden or cheapest in the store.
- 1 tsp minced garlic (or two cloves minced)
- 1 big stick of celery...or about four small ones.
- one largish onion depending on if you do 8 cups or 12 cups.
- about 1 tbsp of oil.

Saute those veggies in the oil until the onion is clear.

Then add pureed tomatoes (about 2 cups worth) to the veggies. Stir well. Add one can (if doing 8 cups) two cans if 12 cups of tomato paste...flavoured or not...up to you. Stir really well.

Then add the rest of the puree.

Bring to boil.

Turn down to simmer.

Let it just simmer away 6-8 hours. Stirring it once in a while.

part way through the day add up to 1/4 cup of sugar to the pot. Stir well.

About 1-2 hours before done add some seasoning. I like to add 1-2 tbsp of Italian seasoning. Depends on how strong you like it to be. You can vary it by adding a bit more garlic, or doing 1/4 cup fresh basil/oregano/etc.

NOW if you want really smooth tomato sauce...stick it in the food processor again once it has cooled enough to handle.

I can it (10 minute water boil).
But some folk stick it in the freezer.

Totally up to you. :)
If I remember I'll take a pic of the finished product.

My Dad - possible Parkinson's

So my dad and mom went to the specialist the other day.

Turns out that the neuropathy that dad deals with might be more than just neuropathy (which is causing some deadened feelings in various parts of his body). Dad might have a form of Parkinson's disease. NOT the type that causes shakiness though. Apparently there are a few different forms of Parkinson's. It does run in the family.

He'll need more tests to confirm the tentative diagnosis, but for now they are putting him on meds to see if that will help him or not.

Nathan W. Bingham - a contest

Kim pointed my ways to this contest by Nathan W. Bingham. He's having a give away.
You'll need to subscribe to his site. So go there if you want to enter the contest. Oh here is the addie to his main site. Go there, decent reading and listening.

The prizes are:

Prize 1 (Major Prize)

1 x Black Genuine Leather ESV Study Bible (valued at almost $100)
1 x Romans by R. C. Sproul (not yet released)

Prize 2 (Minor Prize)

1 x Romans by R. C. Sproul (not yet released)

Faith is....

With closing off more of my facebook games, and having a boy who sleeps in a bit I'm discovering a bit more time in the morning. Ah...to put it to good use having devotions again!!!! :) Yes, sometimes I'm a dunderhead, but getting back to priorities is a good thing.

Last time I studied in Hebrews (feels like a decade ago) was back on August 13 (so not really a decade ago). I had just closed off that chapter, which means today I can start in Hebrews 11. :) This is how that chapter starts.

¹Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ²For by it the people of old received their commendation. ³By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Aren't those cool words? A straight forward answer to the question of what faith is.
Faith is

• the assurance of things hoped for
• the conviction of things not seen
• by it, the people of old received their commendation
• by it, we understand the universe was created by the word of God

1. The Assurance of Things Hoped For

• the word assurance means:

• Freedom from doubt; belief in yourself and your abilities; "his assurance in his superiority did not make him popular"; "after that failure he ...

• a binding commitment to do or give or refrain from something; "an assurance of help when needed"; "signed a pledge never to reveal the secret"

• a statement intended to inspire confidence; "the President's assurances were not respected"

Can you see it....to have that freedom to believe without doubting. That is what faith is. AND I know that having faith is size of a mustard seed is okay. Faith that small can do amazing things.

Matthew 17:19-20 "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?' He said to them, 'Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."
Luke 17:5-6 "The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!' The Lord replied. 'If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.'"

So even though I often feel that my faith is such a weak doddering thing.....and that I'm one of the worst believers out there because of it...my faith in God is real. Even if it feels mustard seedy frequently, that doesn't change that I do believe in God and in the power of what he is and has done and will do. You can't shake that conviction from me. and from what I read in Luke 17 it's not so necessary that I want my faith to increase, but that I use what I have for God's glory. So I can't exactly say that to me faith is "belief in my own abilities". My faith is my belief in God's abilities to be who he is all the time. (hope that makes sense). :)

2. Faith is the conviction of things not seen

One of Justin's frequent comments about why he doesn't believe in God is that he can't see him. This of course makes me point out all the different ways that we can see God at work. See how the ground cherries get yellow and ready to eat? That's because God made the world just by talking and made the dirt and the rain and the sun so that they can grow up so YOU can eat them. God's pretty cool isn't he? Doing this kind of stuff is helping a 4 year old see God a bit more....so now sometimes God is allowed in BunnyTown (his imaginary place where all good things are).

3. by it, the people of old received their commendation
This whole chapter talks about the faith of people of old. Over the next few days I'll be digging into some of that deeper. I'll be able to see how God commended the people of old for their faith. Should prove an interesting study don't you think? But it's good to know that God himself commends people for their faith in him.

4. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

I have to admit...when I first read these words I thought...faith is believing in creation? Wow...interesting concept. Never thought about that before. At least that's how this verse reads to me. It's believing in the power of God to simply speak and then knowing that what he speaks simply IS. The different commentators I checked out agreed with this assessment. Faith is creation linked. It's believing that what God said in the very beginning of the bible is true. He spoke, the world become. He did this out of NOTHING. His word is that powerful.

WOW! Isn't that just the neatest beginning to a chapter on faith? Looking forward to reading more I am. :)

The Otters!

Justin really enjoyed the otters.
He even got to see them have a snack.

Gramma had waited upstairs because she figured bringing the stroller down would be a pain, but Justin had to run up to get gramma to come down.

He was too excited about the otters!

Fascination with Elephants

The Zoo

Gramma, Jim, Justin and I went to the zoo yesterday.

It was a bit busy...BUT we had fun.

Gramma's favourite time: playing with Justin in the tunnel and growling...even getting a young girl to growl back at them. :)


Jim's favourite: Justin's joy at the otters. Oh boy....did he have fun with the otters...even had to run up and tell Gramma to come down and see them. :)


Annette's favourite: Tagu's Cousin! Cousin Tagu! Meow, meow! (and then having tagu look at them too). I think we saw every cat at the zoo.

Justin's favourite part of the zoo? When asked his response is "I don't know!" but he had lots of fun running playing looking. Even playing in some teepees with some young girls.

Better watch out Justin.....those girls are lighting a fire! :)

It was lots of fun all round. I'll post more pics another day. :)

The Jesus Storybook Bible

ooh....I think I want this book. :)

Go here to learn more about it. but the preview I saw just causes me to very much want to get this book.

from the preview page:

About the same time Jesus was born, another baby
was born. His name was John, and God had a special job
for him. John was going to get everyone ready for Jesus.
The day John was born, his dad knew God’s promise
to Abraham was coming true — God was sending the
Rescuer. And he was so happy he sang a song:

Doesn't that just make you want to read more?

oh...the pic above I pulled from a post at life together.