Blessings on Sunday

Hi,

I hope you are all well on this sunny Monday morning. I had such a great day yesterday. Chuck had to work, so I went to church alone. A friend was without her husband too and so we sat together.
Because we haven't talked for awhile, we decided to 'do lunch'. While we were chatting, a friend of hers came and Patty introduced us. She had a book by Warren Wiersbe on James and I noticed it. When I asked about it she told me a ladies study was just starting that morning and she'd introduce me to the leader, Gloria, which she did after church.
So, I went to the study and met quite few ladies, whose names I won't remember; perhaps in time I will :). Gloria is a good leader and I enjoyed the study. Lots of ladies contributed and I'll enjoy getting to know Gloria more too; she's a teacher after my own heart.
Then, Patty and I had lunch and had such a great time chatting. She has diabetes and a heart condition, so her health isn't very good. She also is having a biopsy in July, so she knows where I'm at with my new information. She also understands my great hesitancy to have radiation and/or chemo.
Then, we saw a mutual friend (our son's friend Harold) at lunch and had a nice chat with him. After I got home, I had a couple of phone calls and chatted with old friends from far away and that was so good. These two ladies were part of our life when Chuck and I were first saved. They were part of the new church we all helped to start.
So, my cup overflowed yesterday, into today. Bob and Connie are stopping by in a little while for a visit and they're always great to see. I received quite a few emails from friends and that was such an encouragement; I can't wait for Chuck to see them too.
Thanks for all your prayers for Chuck and me. God has provided such peace and the knowledge that no matter what we face, He's right there with us: His rod and His staff to comfort. He's guiding our decision making and we know He's holding us in His hands.

Trusting in our very great God,
Sandy
Tomorrow I'll have to have blood drawn and an ekg, so life goes on.

Angels?

Good Morning,
I trust you are all well and that the Lord is blessing you abundantly. He's brought Chuck home for the weekend, already. No loads to deliver, but he can get some much needed rest and and the car fixed and that's good.
Today we'll look at verses 8-12 of 1 Cor. 11. It gives an order, man then woman. Then in vs. 10 it mentions angels. If we just read this without understanding why angels were thrown in, it would be very confusing. So, let me share what I've learned.
Keep in mind that with a man and woman, God made a partnership and they are spiritually one in the Lord (Gal. 3:28). Also, 'man' is brought forth from women when they are born, physically. So, why did Paul mention angels? He was arguing the facts of Creation. The angels know their place and show respect when they worship God, for they cover their faces (Is. 6:2). Also, in some way the angels share in public worship of the church and learn from the church (Eph. 3:10; 1 Peter 1:12). To me that brings heaven down and us up to heaven, by their very presence.
So, what does this mean to us? It means that the order that God created includes angels, is specific to His plan and that we need to follow His direction in how we, as women conduct ourselves in the assembly of saints. Angels, by their obedience to God's order, guide us to know that we too are to follow God's plan, fully and obediently. God's authority should be our guide in the order of our obedience.

Obeying with the angels,
Sandy

Rabbit in Traffic

Hello Everyone,
Isn't the Lord gracious to give us another day to serve Him? My day so far has consisted of giving Tucker a bath at the doggy (car) wash. My time with the Lord was super precious also. I've done some other things, but nothing worth mentioning. Chuck's coming home for the night!!! His delivery is here in Springfield. I'm a happy camper:)))).
Last week when I was going to pick up Chuck, on the road at an intersection was a little rabbit, caught in the middle of moving traffic. I could see that it was young and obviously confused as to what to do. It kept turning around and looking, but didn't have the confidence to move. After I had passed, a man got out of his car and shooed the rabbit out of the way.
When I saw this I said: Lord, there's a word picture here, help me to know it. And, of course He did. It ties in to my blog from yesterday. God sees the bigger picture and helps us to get out of the way of trouble, when we let Him.
Just like the little rabbit, our vision is narrow sighted and short. We need His guiding hand to help us through life's many obstacles. What in your life is causing you to not see any of the bigger picture? What is hindering you seeing His hand at work in your life?
Some things that could be hindrances are: pride, confusion, lack of a close walk with Him so as not understand when He shows you what He's doing, pain, self, family.....the list goes on. You can fill in the blank.
So, what do we do when we can't see the bigger picture, for whatever reason? We trust Him to carry us through, guide us to go His direction and then rest in His loving arms and watch Him work. There's just such peace in that.
So, do you want peace, His peace? Then purpose in your heart to trust Him even though you only see short, not long, small not big. He's big enough for all your problems.

Trusting Him,
Sandy

I'm Back

Hey,
My wrist is finally better so 'let the blogging begin'. I fell a week ago and scraped my left knee, both hands and sprained my right wrist and strained the left. I tried to catch my balance when I stepped on a broken piece of sidewalk.
Now, would you like to know what I was doing to be so Klutzy? I was trying to stuff a plastic bag of dog doo doo into my sweatshirt pocket. I need to remind you all that my middle name is klutz.
The word picture I get from this is that when I'm concentrating on the little picture, the bigger picture can trip me up.
We are finite humans and we only can see right now, today and what has happened in the past. Even then our remembrance of the past isn't always 20/20. We have a tendency to focus on the here and now and try to figure out the future.
We want life to play out according to our plans and we sometimes try to manipulate things to make our plans happen. But, we often forget that the Lord is Sovereign and that because He sees the bigger picture and He knows how He wants our lives to play out, that He can tweak the happenings in our daily lives.
God doesn't force us to go a certain direction, but He does help us to want to go along with what He wants for us. We might not even understand that at the time, but hindsight is sometimes 20/20.
So, where does this lead us? Because He's Sovereign, we need to trust Him to help us make the right decisions, go the right direction and live a life that honors Him.
When the bigger picture is overwhelming, trust. When you can't see where He is leading, trust. When you have decisions to make, trust.

He is trustworthy,
Sandy

sprained wrist

hi,

i sprained my right wrist so it will be a few days before i blog again, sorry.

sandy

Headship

Hey,
Another hot, sunny day with rain in the forecast. But, the weekend is upon us and we get to celebrate Father's Day! Lynn and family can't join us, but Josh's will. We also have Ethan and Nolan overnight Friday and that's a real blessing.
Do you remember in Genesis that God said that women are to be "helper's" to men? Keep that in mind as we study.
Paul was talking to the local assembly, not the world at large. You all know the scripture that puts the man as head of the house; I covered that yesterday. We are to both honor His headship by respecting the symbols: hair and head covering. Jewish men always wore a little cap when they prayed, so Paul was introducing something that they weren't familiar with.
For a woman to appear in public with short hair or a shaved head(back then) indicated that she was a prostitute. Paul told them, in vs. 6 if won't cover their heads, cut hair. In Jewish law, a woman proved guilty of adultery had her hair cut off (Num. 5:11-31). Either shaved or cut off hair was a disgrace for women. Paul tied the local custom and Biblical truth together by pointing out the headship order.
Keep in mind that Paul is radically challenging and teaching these folks. They were so bound by traditions that they couldn't see what God wanted for them now.
Tomorrow we'll cover vs. 8-10 about angels and women. Should be interesting....

Short hair uncovered,
Sandy

I Corintians 11:2-16

Good Morning All,
I hope you are all doing well. I talked with Lynn a little while ago and she had been to see her cardiologist and he said her heart was fine. She did however, have a brief episode with her heart last night, but by breathing deeply and calming herself was able to stop the rapid beats. I told her the twins are going to take a lot out of her. Thanks for you ongoing prayers for her. Tiffani and I are going see them on Wed. next week.
As I'm getting into this study of women in ministry, it's opening more info than I thought it would. Of course I have to look at other commentaries and there's just so much info. I'm going to try and condense it as best as I can.
1 Corinthians 11:2-16. If you've read it, good; if not, please do so. I'm finding it clear as mud in some areas, ergo the commentaries and more info to wade through.
It seems that at this time in the history of the church that in the public meetings women were asserting themselves in a disorderly way. Paul was trying to teach from God's Word that they needed to have spiritual grace along with the spiritual gifts.
But, we have to back up to the use of the word 'head'. Paul is speaking about authority, not quality or essence. See the order of: Son submits to the Father, not the Father to the Son and so on. Father, Son, Man, Woman, in order of authority. The Greek word "kephale" means head/authority. Some want to have it mean: source. The problem with this is that Christ was not the source of God the Father. The order has to be correct. Also, because God is eternal, He has no source.
So, Paul was trying to solve the problems created by the women by patiently teaching spiritual principles that supported the teachings he had already given the church.
Tomorrow we'll look at how the Christian life brought freedom and hope to women, children and slaves. This is about the Galatians 3:28 passage.

Searching the Word,
Sandy