Mountain Musings

In Everything Give Thanks

Days to Remember, the new book by Henry M. Morris, was the free book each History of the World Conference attendee was allowed to pick up for free. Because I really enjoy devotional books, I was excited to preview a new one.

This book, however, is not your usual daily devotional, having a sub-title of Devotions for the Holidays Throughout the Year. Some of the divisions include: Christmas, Easter, The New Year, Honoring Parents, Patriotric Holidays, Harvest Holidays, and Key Days in American History--all quite interesting.

Today I thought I would share an excerpt titled In Everything Give Thanks found in the Harvest Holidays section.

"It is easy to be happy and cheerful in times of prosperity, when one has all the comforts of an affluent lifestyle, and everything seems to be going well. The testing times come, however, when these material comforts are somehow taken away, and one feels defeated and all alone.

Except for God! Whatever else may fail, God "will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). We can "rejoice in the Lord...in the God of my salvation."

Job, for example, lost all his possessions, then his children, finally his health, and even his wife turned against him. Yet he could say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed by the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).

God has commanded the Christian, "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (I Thess. 5:18). not for everything, but in everything!

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17)."

What are you thankful for today? Some big answer to prayer? A friend's simple concern for you? A nice home in which to live with your family? Peace in the midst of a hard trial?

This is a small thing, and it doesn't really have any trial attached to it at all...but I'm thankful that today, while sitting in church, I found my long-lost watch (zippered in an inside pocket of my Bible) which had been missing for two months! Why had I not felt it in there before today? In fact, just yesterday I priced a new watch at Walmart and decided to wait just one more week to see if my missing watch would turn up. Out of the blue I was blessed--just a simple thing; but I'm giving thanks for it today!

~Deb

A Year of Color- Week 1 - White

One of my favorite wildflowers - a field of Queen Anne's Lace just over our front yard fence that separates our property from the next-door neighbors. Whenever I look out my door, I see this beautiful sea of white.

I'm participating in the Year of Color sponsored by Amy over at Happy Things who posted a beautiful antique white pitcher. Also, Dawn posted pictures of beautiful white daisies for her White Week. I'm looking forward to snapping some neat pictures throughout the year of color!

~Deb

Friends Who Identify

Yesterday, at the ladies' luncheon the Lord brought to my mind the scripture on Job. This morning when I fired up the laptop, there was my daily email devotional from David Jeremiah of Turning Point; however, it was the email from August 21 instead of July 21. A mistake? Well, probably, but guess who the focus was for the August date? Job, again! Maybe there's more to that lesson I should be learning than the emphasis yesterday.

Here's the devotional copied here with a focus on this particular verse:

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ~ Romans 12:15

"The most famous group of friends in the world (or at least the oldest and most famous) is the group of three who came to visit Job after he suffered several disasters in a row. They've been accused of judging Job unmercifully - for saying that the disasters he experienced were due to some sin in his life.

But wait, let's give these fellows a little credit. Before they launched into lecturing Job, the Bible says they identified with him in his misery. Job was weeping, so they wept. Job was sitting on an ash heap, so they tore their clothes and covered themselves with dust. Job was stunned into silence by all that had happened, so they sat with Job for seven days without saying a word, "for they saw that his grief was very great" (Job 2:13). For that, they deserve credit.

Sometimes the best thing we can do for people is to identify with their grief. Not talk, not advise, not question - just be where they are. The next time someone needs you, start by giving them the gift of yourself. When you identify with them, they will be grateful for you. Sympathy says, "Poor thing!" Empathy says "I am in this with you."

This devotional was so encouraging to me because I'm not good with words, have no real ability to comfort someone, can be so in the dark on what the right thing to do or say at just the right time would be...however, it was good for me to see that Job's friends were just there, and I can do that. I can just be there, be around for a friend or family member to let them know they're not alone. That doesn't take much talent. I think I qualify.

This morning I received an email from a blog buddy who dropped out of blogging a few months ago but is now back, and she had run across Mountain Musings and wanted to re-identify herself to us. She was asking about our air conditioning situation. No, she can't do a thing to help, but do you know what? The feeling I got from her was one of empathy and understanding as if she could identify with being right here with us. Thanks, Donna! You were a good followup example to Dr. Jeremiah's lesson on "friends who identify."

~Deb

3rd Thursday Ladies' Luncheon

Today was our ladies' "3rd-Thursday-of-the-month-bring-your-own-sack" luncheon with our pastor giving the devotional on Job, chapters 1 and 2. It was great to get out of our hot, stuffy, broken air-conditioned house and into someone else's air-conditioned home! What a blessing to sit and enjoy the coolness and fellowship...did I mention the coolness was a good reason to be there? It definitely was!

This was my first devotional lunch to attend with our church group; usually I attend the "2nd-Thursday-at-a-local-restaurant" luncheon, and once before we've hosted the group here at our home. I was glad I went today; I always enjoy seeing how someone else decorates their home, plus we celebrated my friend Jean's birthday. And, it was a good chance to make a Costco run in Harrisonburg afterwards.

I wanted to share some notes on Job 1 and 2 I took during the luncheon today. If you'd like to follow along, click continuation page.

~Deb

More Conference Reminiscences

The History of the World Mega-Conference is over, but the digesting of everything we learned will, I'm sure, be going on for awhile. Looking over all my pages of notes (and the volumes of photos Mom and I took), it's hard to boil everything down into a blog post, but I'll try to share some of the highlights.

I'll agree with Jonathan that Dr. John Morris' talks were memorable--from viewing slides on his Ararat adventures to hearing about the RATE team's latest scientific research pointing to a young earth. Each attendee received a free devotional book, the last published work written by the late Dr. Henry Morris, and Jonathan was able to get his copy signed by John Morris after the special awards.

It was difficult to choose between the 68 different lectures being held simultaneously throughout the week--we each had our favorites all scoped out, but then rearranged our choices as time went on. Too much to learn, and too little time! I think I liked the keynote sessions the most, because I didn't have to worry about what we were missing in another room. :) One of our earlier sessions was with Dr. Joe Morecraft, who brought to the conference an enthusiasm for early church history. He spoke on St. Augustine, giving a survey of his most famous writings while pointing out that throughout his lifetime Augustine struggled with the two contradictory doctrines of grace vs. church sacraments as necessary for salvation.

Several of us enjoyed hearing Col. John Eidsmoe address the subjects of ancient legal systems (in the New World, such as those of the Incas and Iroquois), the history of the Hebrew nation, and the culture and conquests of the Vikings. He noted that while these pagan nations had complex societies, they didn't begin simple and then progress their way up, but rather were advanced to begin with and then degenerated--a theme emphasized by other speakers as well.

Geoff Botkin's topic of Why American History Texts Are Unreliable attracted a good-sized audience. To start off he showed several Soviet photographs that had been airbrushed to remove certain Russian political figures. He used this as an example of the revision, confusion, and destruction of history, which ultimately amounts to attacking God. He went on to describe how in the 1800s a group of teachers with Marxist philosophies (such as John Dewey) had conspired to create a "new epoch" of history. This atttempt to control history has had widespread effects on our academic system and the minds of Americans to this day. We came home with a few CDs of Mr. Botkin's messages that we didn't get to hear.

The only lecture of Dr. Paul Jehle's we ended up being in on was What Every Christian Should Know About The Babylonian Empire, though after attending this session, we wish we'd have heard more of his dynamic speaking. Using colorful timelines and Biblical accounts of the proud and pagan kingdom of Babylon, he drew out lessons of purity, humility and service, contrasting Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar.

Doug Phillips' fascinating though gruesome keynote presentation on the Mayan culture included many spectacular photos of the trip he and his wife took to some of the ancient pyramids. He pointed out that anyone who becomes desensitized to evil will eventually tolerate, accept, and promote unthinkable atrocities like the idolatry and human sacrifice of the Mayans.

Finally, here is a view from the landing at Fort Pocahontas, which was part of our tour near Sherwood Forest, as all the homeschoolers explored the water's edge and chatted under the trees.

Those are some glimpses of our week at the conference--maybe other members of the family will add some more. It was refreshing to be around other Christian families and considering God's hand in history.

~Hannah

41 Years Ago Today

Sunday, July 18, 1965--the day that I became a new creature in Christ, the day I realized I needed a Saviour, asked the Lord to come into my heart and forgive my sins, and the day my name was written (never to be removed) from the Lamb's Book of Life. Thank you, Lord!

I shared my life's testimony last year, and you can find it here in a post called 40 Years A'Walkin'!

We'll celebrate my Happy Spiritual Birthday! tonight with a special dessert (our normal spiritual birthday tradition) with Hannah's delicious homemade smoothies! Should be a nice cool treat for a hot evening. :) 

~Deb

Did You Check Out The Winners?

Head on over to Sallie's at A Gracious Home today to check out all the winners in the Blogs of Beauty Awards that were just posted last night. Sallie did an outstanding job again this year; I'm sure no one really knows all the work that goes into a big project like this, and we sincerely thank her for the excellent job!

Our congratulations go to all the nominees, finalists, and winners in the various categories. Thank you so much for thinking of the Mountain Musings gang in nominating us again this year; it is a real honor, and we appreciate your kindness.

Now...off to read some of these new blogs I've found from the nominee listings!

~Deb

Aah! Good Ol' Hot Summertime!

Yes, we're back home and settling in from our trip to Hampton, Virginia, for the Mega-World History Conference. Mega it was! We have tons of notes and thoughts to sort through--and possibly some coming posts on the conference from some of the Mountain Musings gang (besides me)! At least, I've heard some whisperings to that effect. We'll see.

I am finding out we are very spoiled people around here! We arrived home to a broken air conditioner and temps in the high 90's! No success yet in trying to connect with a repairman--everyone is evidently too busy in this heat even to return messages. Some of our windows don't even have blinds, so Tom has tacked up strips of computer paper and some old sheets to block the hot sun in various rooms. Lovely.

And there's so much I want to do this week to get straight after being away, but who has the energy to do anything with no AC? What did folks do back in the old days? Just go fishin', hunker down under a shady tree, and relax?

Maybe I'll just sit here today sipping lemonade catching up on reading the tons of blogs that accumulated on bloglines, and I'll worry about the cleaning and unpacking later.

I think I'll send up some prayers, too, that a lonely Trane repairman will finally call us and schedule a visit.

~Deb

History of the World - Day 5

Here we are first thing Saturday morning headed in for the last day of the History of the World Conference. It's really been a great week! Jonathan and Tom, the history buffs, seem to have thoroughly enjoyed each and every session. I enjoyed my time, too, especially the people we met at the conference. We had already prayed many times before we even attended that the Lord would direct us this week to like-minded families and folks He would have us spend time with and get to know. We were very appreciative that He directed our paths, and we could be a blessing to some folks and they in turn really encouraged and blessed us.

The morning started off as usual with Doug Phillips leading the audience in singing Psalm 100, Pilgrim-style. I think we have it all memorized by now!

All five of us decided to attend the same two workshops during the morning hours given by Doug's father, The Honorable Howard Phillips, speaking on "A Constitutional Survey of the 43 Presidents of the United States, Part I & II." The session started out pretty exciting when he started pulling out $20 bills and throwing them on the table ready to give to the first person to answer his presidential quizzes.

I have always been interested in presidential trivia from years ago when we hosted a Presidents' Bee for our local home school group. So I was looking forward to having at least one of our five walk up and grab that $20!

First question: "Who was the president who preceded and who was the president who followed the president named Leslie King."

I remembered Leslie King was Gerald Ford's real name, but my mind was blank on pulling the other two presidents' names out of my brain. Jonathan and Tom were quickly thinking...but not before a real trivia buff raised his hand, named the two presidents (Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter) and claimed the $20! Other questions followed, mostly obscure ones like:

"Which president in the 19th century was the great uncle of a president in the 20th century?"  No one claimed that $20! (I'll give you time to figure that bit of trivia out and post the answer later.)

The afternoon was filled with a 2-hour panel discussion with the workshop speakers in the photo to the left. Seated at the table: The Honorable Howard Phillips and his son Doug Phillips. Standing: Col. John Eidsmoe, William Potter, Dr. Paul Jehle, Geoffrey Botkin, and Dr. Marshall Foster.

Very interesting questions followed, and I wish I could type out all the panel discussion here. But I'll close with saying it was very enjoyable to hear the speakers answer the questions, "Who was the one person in your mind that most affected the 20th century for good?" And "Who was the most influential bad guy in the 20th century? And "What technological gadget or invention most affected your life for the good in this century?" Would you believe some answers included anti-perspirant, disposable diapers, air conditioning, and safety release horse stirrups!?

The conference for 2006 officially closed Saturday at 4:25 p.m. We toured the vendor hall again for the last time to see what we wanted to buy and which workshops we missed that we wanted to purchase on CD. I'm sure Vision Forum will eventually make available a set of some of the key messages in the future for purchase.

Also, a final chance to talk with friends before saying goodbye. Here are Karen and Abigail from Pennsylvania (sisters to Jonathan from Friday's photo blog) talking with Hannah and Tom.

Jonathan and Sarah are patiently waiting for us to head back to the motel. Sunday will find us attending our former church in Newport News and getting re-acquainted with friends there before heading home to the baby--Pepper has to be picked up at the kennel by 6:00 p.m. And I'm sure the Girlie will be glad to see her long-lost family!

Signing off for now...

~Deb

History of the World - Day 4

Here are a few scenes from Friday's History of the World Conference including special music, fellowship times, speakers, and workshop topics.

A member of the Erber family delighted us with some excellent piano playing.

We enjoyed meeting and talking with Jonathan from Pennsylvania who attended the conference with his parents and eight siblings.

And we always enjoy renewing our friendship with Jeff and Anne Miller from Williamsburg. Anne is the president of our Virginia state home school organization, and it was fun catching up with her.

Jonathan and Tom spent some time talking with our friend L.D. from the home church fellowship group in Richmond we visit occasionally.

Scott Brown is another familiar face at the conference this week. He's shown here making an announcement for the Vision Forum Entrepreneurial Boot Camp being held in August.

One of the workshops Tom and I attended today was Geoffrey Botkin's "Ten Words Every Student of Mod ern History Must Understand." Just briefly, in case you're wondering what those ten words are: Providence, Utopia, Sanctions, Conspiracy, Eschaton, Liturgy, Blasphemy, Collectivism, Socialization, and Historiography.

Sarah picked two workshops that no one else picked to attend, and we later found out everyone was raving over "The Hollywood Century" by Geoffrey Botkin, and Doug Phillips' talk on "Perpetuated in Righteousness: The Christian History of Hawaii."

Since Virginia celebrates the 400th Birthday of Jamestown next year in 2007, Doug Phillips' keynote address tonight was a rousing plea for parents to bring their children to Jamestown and to the banks of the James River to share with them the rich heritage we have here in our area.

It was a very packed day! And we're looking forward to the remaining history workshops tomorrow. As much as we wish good times like this could go on forever sometimes, I think we'll all enjoy catching up on some much needed sleep when we get home!

~Deb