Jon and Candy Summers share:

Christian Home Educators Fellowship—Faithfully honoring God and serving the homeschooling community for the past 28 years! www.chef-missouri.com

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME MARCH 2012 NEWSLETTER

I.      CHEF Information and Activities

         1.     Prayer Requests for the Coldon Family, Ritter Family, and Koenig Family

         2.     Koenig Family’s Information on Their Gospel Show in Branson

         3.     CHEF Meetings and English/Scottish Country Dance Practices, March 30; April 13, 27; May 11

         4.     CHEF Graduation Rehearsal and Ceremony, June 2

         5.     CHEF Used Curriculum Fair, June 6

         6.     CHEF 2012 Conference, June 18-19: Reviews

         7.     CHEF 2012 Conference: Paul Jehle’s and Dr. Morecraft’s workshops

         8.     CHEF 2012 Speaker Douglas Bond’s Invitation to European Reformation Tour

         9.     Special Opportunities

                 a.     School Days at Fort de Chartres, March 30

                 b.    Vision Forum’s Titanic 100, April 13-15

                 c.     Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines, July 15-20

                 d.    Defender of the Unborn

                 e.     Homeschoolers’ Guest Cottage for Rent

         10.   New Homeschoolers

                 a.     View Candy Summers’ Three-Hour New Homeschoolers’ Workshop Online

                 b.    Link to Article on Logging

II.     There’s No Place Like Home Articles

         1.     Weblog: Charming Window Treatment

         2.     Isaac Watts’ Poem on Love Between Brothers and Sisters

         3.     Delightful Surprises: Creating Fun for Our Children-A Wonderful Gift from God

         4.     Come Gather at Our Table: The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg and Aunt Evelyn’s Brisket

         5.     Economy: Exchanging Winter’s Wardrobe for Spring’s Wardrobe

         6.     Spring Cleaning Restores God’s Order

         7.     Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Treating a Bad Burn

         8.     The War Between the States-America’s Uncivil War: How Nationalism, the Doctrines of the French Revolution, and Communism Impacted Our Country

         9.     Multigenerational Family Business

                 a.     Schnucks Supermarkets

                 b.    Prevedelli Farms

                 c.     Kaitlynn’s Deli and Ice Cream Shop

         10.   The Dismantling of America

                 a.     Pepsi’s Use of Aborted Fetal Cells in Soft Drinks

                 b.    Public School Agenda

    11.   Christians’ Steadfastness: Indoctrination Documentary

For those of you who are new to our email mailing list, you may read recent email newsletters on the website at www.chef-missouri.com (click on TNPLH Newsletter) or www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/.

CHEF INFORMATION AND ACTIVITIES

PRAYER REQUESTS

Prayer Request for Coldon Family

Goldia Coldon shares: My only child Phoenix Coldon has been missing since Sunday, December 18, 2011. She left home around 3:00 P.M. on that day in her SUV, a black 1998 Chevrolet Blazer. The vehicle was found less than 4 hours later in East St. Louis . The motor was running, the keys were in the ignition, and the driver’s door was open. We did not find out until Sunday, January 1, 2012, though, that her vehicle had been towed to a tow yard in East St. Louis . The only clue we have is that someone saw a black male with dreadlocks in Phoenix ’s vehicle between December 10 and December 18. That male may drive an older model hunter green 4-door sedan.

Phoenix’s situation has been featured in the local and national media; all of the coverage is listed at www.o4lm.com. We have also set up a page on Facebook (Missing Phoenix Coldon) to get Phoenix ’s face and situation before as many people as possible in hopes that someone has seen, heard or knows something that could help us find Phoenix .

If anyone wants flyers to distribute in their area, please call me at 314-653-6606 as I have several hundred color copies on hand and can get more color copies. We ask that all flyers be in color as those are the ones that people notice and represent what Phoenix actually looks like. 

Ritter Family Update

Please continue to pray for the Ritter family as both Tom and Debra prepare for their surgeries. Tom will be operated on this Friday. Though not yet scheduled, Debra’s could be scheduled as quickly as the following week. She meets with the oncologist as I write this. Please pray that Tom and Debra will have clear direction when making their decisions for what type of surgery Debra will have and what treatment or treatments will follow. Pray for renewed strength, strong bodies and bolstered immune systems, peaceful sleep, awareness of God’s presence and His providential care, and a peace for the entire family that only God in His merciful love can provide. Jon will be with Tom for his surgery, and we are planning on being there for Debra’s, so by the next newsletter we will have an update for you.

Koenig Family Update

The Koenigs share: As many of you know, last month a tornado hit Branson , Missouri damaging theatres, shopping plazas, and homes. We praise the Lord that at that time our family was still in Florida , and therefore we were all safe. What many do not know is had our family not been detained a little while longer, Randy and some of the children would have been there. How we thank the Lord for His protection! The Owen’s Historic Theatre where we perform and manage did suffer considerable damage. Part of the roof was blown off, there is a hole in the wall, siding is missing, and our signs were blown away, etc. However, we are thankful that the theatre will be able to be repaired. Progress right now for the repairs is going slowly, as we have run into difficulties with the insurance companies and the weather. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers as we continue to move forward in restoring the theatre. We have had to make a lot of decisions these past few weeks; therefore, we covet your prayers for God’s leading and direction during this time in our lives. We are told that we will possibly be able to open Mid-April!! Shows are scheduled Wednesday thru Saturday at 10 AM in April (tentative to theatre repairs), May, September, October, November, and December. Also, our family will be traveling during the summer months. We’d love to meet you! To find out more, please visit www.twiceadopted.org.

“The Twice Adopted Gospel Show” (April-June 2) One Unique Family! One Unique Story! From Guatemala , Peru , and the United States , The Twice Adopted Gospel Show allows you to meet ten children, adopted into one family, singing together for the glory of God! These children will steal your heart as they bring you a variety of gospel songs, as well as surprise you with their favorite Broadway tunes and a very unique and special patriotic tribute at the end! The stories, humor, and love for God, family and country make “The Twice Adopted Gospel Show” a must see for all you gospel lovers! Come and meet Callie, Katie, Keri, Christy, Kaylia, Kimi, Karli, Cassi, Antonio, and Miguel as they sing their way into your heart and welcome you as one of the family! You will be blessed!

“A Twice Adopted Christmas” (November-December 7) Come celebrate in the joy of the Christmas season remembering what Christmas is all about. You’ll hear your favorite Christmas carols, as well as all time favorite Christmas songs. Learn about this unique family’s traditions, stories, and much more. When you arrive you will feel as a guest, but when you leave you will feel like one of the family! “You’ll laugh and you’ll cry – You’ll be refreshed and inspired!”

Twice Adopted performs at the Owen’s Historic Theatre, 205 South Commercial St., Branson, MO 65616 (Located in downtown Branson, just 2 blocks south of Dicks 5 & 10 Store, near the Branson Landing). Box Office: 417-334-9333 Info: 636-248-3311

Special Note to Families from one of the Twice Adopted Children: Dear Friends, Thank you for taking the time to read what the Lord is doing in my family’s life. He has been so good to us! Long before our family’s ministry ever came about, my parents delighted in taking our family to Branson , Missouri a couple of times every year. We would have a wonderful time going to many of the attractions Branson had to offer! Many memories have been made in those years past, and we are continuing to make memories that will last a lifetime. However as our family grew, the expenses to get into a certain show/attraction increased as well. We began to see that shows would have a “ Family Pass ” BUT it was limited to four children or less. We knew that when we began a show of our own in Branson, we wanted all children to have FREE admission. So that is what we have done! Any child living at home, who is dependent on their parents, is FREE at no charge! We want your entire family to enjoy any Twice Adopted show. Our family’s favorite verse is “Children are a blessing from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3a). Our family loves children, and that is one thing we uphold in our family’s performances. We look forward to meeting your entire family the next time you come to Branson! www.twiceadopted.org

CHEF Meetings and English/Scottish Country Dance Practices called by Jeremy Suerman with Volleyball, Basketball and Great Fellowship at Dorsett Village Baptist Church, 2240 Bennington, Maryland Heights MO 63043 on Fridays 7:00 p.m.-Midnight on March 30; April 13, 27; May 11. Meetings are free and will be held prior to the dances from 7:00-8:15 on March 30, April 27, and May 11. Dances: Registration cost at the door is $65 per family or $5 per dancer per class. You do not have to pay for family members who just come to watch. Dancers, ages five and under are free.

On March 30, April 27, and May 11, Jon and I will be casting a vision for multi-generational family businesses, while also giving specific details about starting and running a business.

CHEF 28th Annual 2012 Graduation To receive your graduation packet, please call Sonia Summers at 314-521-8487 and leave your name, graduate’s name, phone number, and email address. Our next meeting will be combined with rehearsal at Faith Lutheran Evangelical Church . We are still waiting on the church to finalize that date.

CHEF Graduation Ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 2 from 10:00 a.m. to Noon at Faith Lutheran Evangelical Church , 6101 Telegraph Road , Oakville , MO 63129 . If you take the 270/255 South/East Interstate, exit at Telegraph Road, which is just before the Jefferson Barracks Bridge entering Illinois. After exiting, it is 2 miles south on Telegraph on the right side of the road. The church’s website is www.faithstl.org. Former homeschooler Kurt Bahr, a Republican who represents District 19 in St. Charles , will be our charge speaker.

Chef Used Curriculum Sale Wednesday, June 6, 9:00 a.m. to Noon at Maryland Heights Community Center , 2344 McKelvey Rd. , Maryland Heights , MO 63043 . Both buyers and sellers have told us that this one is the best! We have people come from all over the state. Sellers may begin setting up at 8:00 a.m. Tables are $13 for an 8-ft. table. To register for a table, send your check payable to CHEF, c/o Teresa May, 3110 Fulton Way , St. Ann , MO 63074 or contact her at 314-428-9086. Directions: From Hwy. 270 go west on Dorsett. Turn right at first light on McKelvey (same as going to Dorsett Church ). Turn right on Ameling. Turn left on McKelvey Rd. Community Center is on right. Our thanks to Katelyn Whittington for taking care of scheduling this CHEF event this year and to Judy Collier for securing this location for us again!

2012 Conference and Curriculum Fair, Monday and Tuesday, June 18-19 at the St. Charles Convention Center, One Convention Center Plaza, St. Charles, MO 63303.

Strengthening Families Through the Word of God

You should have received an email with a link to the CHEF conference video promotional from This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you did not receive it, you may view the video promotional at http://www.chef-missouri.com/. You may also view it by clicking on the play button below.

“My sister and I just watched the new video about the Conference!!! And wow, it is incredible. It definitely fills the viewer with enthusiasm! And the music is good—very inspiring, earnest, yet joyful and it goes well with the whole message.” –Young adult, St. Louis , MO

“I just watched the promotional video. It was excellent! I will be happy to share the video with local homeschoolers.” – Edwardsville , IL

“Love it! Love it! Love it!” –Vendor

“We watched your video over and over again. Amazing! We have booked our rooms and can’t wait. We had a wonderful time at the tea!!!” – Curryville , MO

“Wow!! The video was awesome. How inspiring and yet also how convicting to know that we are failing to uphold these truths we say we believe…Lord Jesus, come quickly to confront us with our sin, convict us of righteousness and truth, and give us the power to rise above what we see here on this earth. Praying for your family and for the finances and for His will to be done throughout it all.” – Oakville , MO

Conference Evaluations

“I love how the speakers love and serve God above all things and encourage us to do the same. It doesn’t even compare to the homeschool conference that is not headed by biblical truth.” – Warrenton , MO

“Excellent convention location. Easy access and very convenient. Speaker selection very good and draws a lot of attendees.” –Vendor

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

Please pray that all the conference speakers will get their workshop descriptions to us as soon as possible so we can finish up the conference brochure! We are still waiting for workshop descriptions from four speakers.

Paul Jehle’s Workshops

The Nature of Biblical Covenants: An exploration of the various covenants described in the Bible—both Old Testament and New. What is common to all biblical covenants? How does this help us in our daily life today? What is distinctly different between the Adamic, Noahic, Davidic and other covenants, and what difference does it make to the believer today?

The Relationship between the Old and New Covenants: Today the Old and New Testaments are set in opposition to each other, creating conflict where there should not be. The Old and New Covenants are not the same, but they are two sides of the same coin. Come and be inspired as to why you should study the “whole Bible” and why its division has set precedents that are affecting us in all aspects of our culture.

The Nature of God’s Law: Why an understanding of God’s law, first revealed in the Old Testament, is critical to an understanding of the heritage of law in general, its benefit in the life of the believer, and the heritage we have in America . The role of God’s law in the New Testament will also be explored, so that a believer need not fear the accusation of being “legalistic” when understood in its proper biblical context.

The Roots of the First Amendment: An examination of the heritage of religious liberty in America in relation to God’s law in the Bible. We will explore the difference between religious pluralism, toleration and liberty in the context of biblical law.

Dr. Joe Morecraft’s Workshops

John Knox and the Scottish Reformation: No event in Europe had as significant an impact on the creation of the American mind of 1776 as much as the Scottish Reformation under the leadership of John Knox. Understanding Knox and the Scottish Reformation is essential to understanding the worldview that produced the Declaration of Independence, the War of Independence and the United States Constitution.

The Scottish Covenanters-Martyrs for Christ: The Scottish Christians of the 17th century, known as Covenanters, comprised one of the greatest races of human beings ever to live. Their courage for biblical truth, to the point of torture and martyrdom, is unsurpassed. Men, women and children were willing to die for the truth that Christ, not man, is King.

Samuel Rutherford and the Scots-Irish: In colonial America in 1776, one of the best-selling books that represented the consensus of opinion of most Americans was written by the great Scottish preacher Samuel Rutherford. The name of his book is Lex Rex, which means in English, “The law is king.” The Scots-Irish, who influenced America in its early days more than any other ethnic group, brought Rutherford’s and Knox’s worldview and philosophy of civil government to North America. It was especially the influence of the Scots-Irish that saved the “Old South” from Unitarianism, which had already devoured New England by the early 1800s.

1861-65, America’s French Revolution: In a very real sense American’s first revolution was our War Between the States, since America’s war in 1776 against Great Britain was not a revolution but a war in defense of freedom and a Christian way of life in the colonies against the tyranny of King George III. That revolution that took place in the mid-1860s is still ongoing, and unless it is stopped, it will lead to the complete demise of any Christian social and moral order in the United States .

A Message From Our CHEF 2012 Speaker Douglas Bond The Reformation for All Time Tour of France, Switzerland , and Germany on June 20-30, 2013 is filling rapidly. We can only take about 50 people, and we are well past the halfway mark. It’s going to be a wonderful tour, and we’d love to have you along. I anticipate that the tour will be fully subscribed in a short time, so contact me today and reserve your place on an unforgettable tour of the lives and places of many of the giants of Reformation history! Special Notice: Due to health problems, one of our travelers was forced to cancel her booking on the Hymn Tour of England and Wales , August 11-21, 2012. We have one spot remaining on what, God willing, will be a deep and enriching experience. Contact me today if you want to take advantage of this unique tour (we are staying in a castle and other fantastic accommodations). Blessings in Christ, Douglas Bond http://www.bondbooks.net/

In 2012 I will have 5 (maybe 6) new books releasing! Toplady biography, May; Knox novel, June; Hand of Vengeance, June; Watts biography, September, and Forgotten Songs, a new volume on the Psalms edited by Ray Van Neste; I have written a chapter for the book with Ray Ortlund, Leland Ryken, Jack Collins, and others. My EP biography on Savonarola, just completed, may release sometime in 2012; waiting to hear date.

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES

Knox Adler shares: School Days at Fort de Chartres Friday, March 30, 9:30-2:00 $5 per student. Sarah Schatte is dedicated to preserving, educating, and promoting historic sites in Illinois . She writes: We are excited to reach out to the homeschooling community to invite you to our 3rd Annual School Days at historic Fort de Chartres near Prairie du Rocher, Illinois . This unique field trip gives children a hands-on learning approach to the history around us. The finest 18th century reenactors from around the country will be at the fort for this field trip to give children a historically accurate account of what life was like at a French fort in the French and Indian War time period. Here is an overview of the event: Opening Ceremony 9:30 a.m. in front of the flag poles. This will include a short history of the fort. Cannon Demonstration from a French Cannon Artillery Group in the Cannon Platform area. Students will break into smaller groups (10-15 students with 1-2 chaperones/teachers) and go to a demonstration of their choice. Every 15 minutes a musket will fire signaling time to move to a new demonstration. This will continue until lunch at 12:00. Lunch 12:00-12:45. Students can bring a sack lunch or purchase a lunch at the fort. Hot dog or peanut butter and jelly meal for $4. After lunch, a demonstration of a narrated skirmish between the French and British. This will be an example of encounters between the French, British, and Natives throughout the French and Indian War. Following the skirmish, students will continue to go to demonstrations for 15-minute intervals. The day will conclude at 2:00. Here are some of the planned demonstrations: French marine soldiers and British soldiers, fife and drum corps, powder horn making, candle dipping, leatherwork, woodwork on the great wheel, quill work, pottery and sculpting, 18th century maps, quill pens, canoes, native camp in the native village, fire starting, musket station, and bake oven. For more information call 618-334-2741, visit www.ftdechartres.com or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Titanic 100: An International Centennial Event April 13-15 in Branson, Missouri This April, the attention of the world will focus on the 100-year anniversary of the second-most famous ship in world history—the R.M.S Titanic. Next to Noah’s Ark , no other seagoing vessel has captured the imagination of so many. Certainly no event in history has done more to remind Western culture of the Christian doctrine of “women and children first.” Now, on the centennial anniversary of Titanic’s demise, the international obsession over the famed ocean liner is set to reach a feverish pitch as new books on Titanic are published, popular Titanic films are re-released, and a spate of Titanic commemorative events are scheduled to be held around the globe. But only one international event will be dedicated to presenting a distinctively Christian message with a historical interpretation designed to inspire the next generation to embrace and advance the ideal that men should sacrifice for women and children.

Today, Vision Forum Ministries and the Christian Boys’ and Men’s Titanic Society are pleased to invite you to join us for the Titanic 100: An International Centennial Event—the family event of the year. The Titanic 100 is a living history, home education, commemorative experience, replete with dramatic performances, music of the 1912 era, stirring messages, costume events, stories your children will remember, an interactive journey through the greatest Titanic museum in the world, and a fabulous anniversary banquet cruise on a steamer (that we hope will not sink), as we remember the 100-year anniversary of the R.M.S. Titanic. For more information, go to http://www.visionforumministries.org/events/cbmts/013/

Christina Comfort of Lamplighter Ministries shares: Lamplighter Ministries International is a non-profit Christian organization based out of northeastern Pennsylvania . Since 1994, Lamplighter has republished character building stories from centuries past with the mission of making ready a people prepared for the Lord by building Christlike character, one story at a time. Over the past few years, we have adapted some of these stories into dramatic radio theatre; these audios are now playing on 1100 stations around the world. You can find out more at www.lamplighter.net

This summer from July 15-20, Lamplighter Ministries plans to host its second Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines, a catalyst for collaboration, innovation, and compelling instruction between master teachers and apprentices. Students will choose to study either Dramatic or Visual Arts during this time, and each student will be challenged to cultivate a high level of excellence in order to uniquely reflect the image of God in his work and life. This event will be hosted at the world-renowned Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York .

Dramatic Arts students will learn script writing, sound design, music composition, directing, producing and voice acting from the creative minds and talents behind acclaimed radio theatre productions such as Adventures in Odyssey, Chronicles of Narnia, Les Miserables, and Left Behind. Visual arts students will interact with Mohonk’s spectacular mountaintop in an unforgettable week of visual exploration and creative expression through plein air oil painting. To learn more, visit www.lamplighterguild.com.

Homeschooling Mom, Mary Maschmeier, Executive Director of Defenders of the Unborn shares: What will we do? Another year has passed and a new one is beginning. We are still in the battle for the lives of the unborn child. Thirty-nine years and 52 million children have died at the hands of choice. What is the answer to this holocaust here in America ? What are we to do to stop the senseless killing of 4,500 children every day? If a child was drowning in a neighbor’s pool, would we write a letter to your legislator? Or would we call a friend to see what needs to be done? I believe that we would go into that neighbor’s yard and attempt to save that child. If you knew that a murder was about to happen, would you say, “I don’t want to get involved.” Would you turn your back on the victim? I believe you would call the authorities and tell them of the impending threat. Please tell me what is the difference in these cases and in the case of a child that is scheduled to die at the hands of a paid “doctor?” The only difference is that our government has said it is legal to kill this child that is growing in his mother’s womb. This child that is breathing and has fingers and toes. This child that is made in the image and likeness of God. During the anniversary of Roe v. Wade I have heard different pro-life leaders say that they want to make this year the year to end abortion. I believe that we need to make each day the day to end abortion. I believe that we need to be a witness to those who have scheduled to destroy their child today, tomorrow and each day until it has ended. Each child is special and each child deserves to be protected. We must do what it takes to support and protect that child, that child who is in danger of death, Today! A poem written by Laura Dunn, a pro-life activist, talks about the Monster, the monster that was unwanted in the beginning but after time it was accepted as the King. This is what Planned Parenthood has done to our moral fiber. We have become complacent to this evil. We have accepted it as part of our life. How can we accept killing children for pay as being the right thing to do? What are we to do? Today is the day that we stand up and be counted. This is the day that we make right the wrongs that we have accepted for thirty-nine years. We must stop the destruction of God’s little ones. We need to continue to support candidates that respect life. We need to make the community aware of the evil acts of Planned Parenthood. We must teach our children about what an abortion is. Our children are our future and they need to be strong to fight this monster. With this age of technology we must use it to profit us. We must use it to expose those who kill children. This monster will be taken down when the Christian community removes the gloves and stands up to be counted. We must stand witness against this monster. We must pray for the souls of those who protect the destruction of innocent little ones. Defenders of the Unborn will stand witness against this monster. We will continue to educate, and we will continue to support those who are in need of help. We will follow God’s calling to defend and protect His little ones! Join Defenders of the Unborn to be part of Constant Witness 365 days. This year each day is to be like the last day of abortion in this country. www.stl-defenders.com God bless! 314-346-9052

Guest Cottage Allen and Tauna Powell are homeschooling parents and have been vendors at our CHEF conference. Relax or catch up on work in our exclusive-use, self-catering 2-bedroom guest house in north Missouri , just 3-1/2 hours west and north of St. Louis . Recently renovated and updated in Old World décor, but including Wi-Fi, large screen TV, DVD player, satellite channel selections, and a huge selection of movies and books. With close access to a main highway, our guest house offers privacy without isolation. YMCA, antique shops, second-hand stores, state parks, historical sites, wildlife refuge areas, and museums are all nearby. Please contact Allen and Tauna Powell at 660-963-2685, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text95817 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , website www.powellscountryguesthouse.com. For natural Shetland sheep wool, visit www.sunrisepastures.com.

NEW HOMESCHOOLERS

(I just found this note Sonia had written to a new homeschooler and thought it would serve as encouragement.) “I have been homeschooled all of my life. I am so thankful to my parents for the sacrifice that they have made in order to keep my siblings and me at home. At the conference my mother gives a three hour workshop for new homeschoolers, which is very informative, helpful, and encouraging. I would highly recommend that you take the time to listen online, as I think that it will change the way that you homeschool in a wonderful way.”

http://www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=85&Itemid=67

For information on logging:

http://theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=789:logging-hours&catid=34:heart-to-heart&Itemid=53.

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME—Celebrating 26 years of inspiration, encouragement, and biblical instruction www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com

WEBLOG

Charming Window Treatment

http://www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1024:march-19th-2012&catid=58:blog&Itemid=64

HEART TO HEART TEA

The following is a poem that the Koenig children recited to us at the Heart to Heart Tea. To encourage forgiveness and reconciliation, Linda had her children hold hands and recite this to each other after their quarrels.

Love Between Brothers and Sisters by Isaac Watts

Whatever brawls disturb the street, There should be peace at home;

Where sisters dwell, and brothers meet, Quarrels should never come.

Birds in their little nests agree, And ‘tis a shameful sight,

When children of one family, Fall out, and chide, and fight.

Hard names at first, and threatening words, That are but noisy breath;

May grow to clubs and naked swords, To murder and to death.

The devil tempts one mother’s son, To rage against another!

So wicked Cain was hurried on, Till he had kill’d his brother.

The wise will let their anger cool, At least before ‘tis night!

But in the bosom of a fool, It burns till morning light.

Pardon, O Lord, our childish rage, Our little brawls remove;

That as we grow to riper age, Our hearts may all be love.

Taken from The Old Paths Series: Divine and Moral Songs for Children by Isaac Watts

DELIGHTFUL SURPRISES

Creating Fun for Our Children: A Wonderful Gift from God

~As usual this time of year, we finished our work around 8:30 p.m. I was totally exhausted and looking forward to a nice relaxing evening, when Jon suggested we pick up Cecil Whittaker’s pizza and head over to Francis Park for a picnic, walk, and Ted Drewes. Quite frankly, that was the last thing I wanted to do, and if Jon and I had been alone, I would have asked him if he had lost his mind. But instead, thinking of the children of course, I praised Jon for such a wonderful idea. So by the time we showered and picked up our pizza, it was 10:00 p.m. Yet we had a lovely night, picnicking, walking in the park, and feasting on sundaes. After all, even though we older folks may not feel up to frolicking so late into the night after a grueling day’s work, young people are always ready for some fun. And so Jon and I live our lives thinking of our children instead of ourselves.

~On our return home from grocery shopping the other day, I spied a huge puddle of water up ahead. While waiting at the stoplight, Josiah and I witnessed multiple cars slowing down to a snail’s pace to wade the puddle instead of enjoying it. It was then that I remembered how I took the children out on rainy days to jump in puddles. I asked Josiah if he remembered how much fun we had getting wet, and then when our light turned green, I raced our truck through the puddle, showering us with a wonderful spray of water.

~While reclining in our dining room after a lovely evening of fellowship, a friend’s young son hightailed it under our table to avoid being caught by Jedidiah who was playing chase and tickle. I mentioned to my friend that I would have to show her son Josiah’s stash of valuable papers and went on to explain that when Josiah was a little boy, he would stuff discarded advertisements between our Duncan Fife’s table top and pedestal. I have kept them there for posterity. Of course, they also serve to bring a smile to my face when I’m down on my hands and knees dusting the legs of the table and chairs. This prompted my friend to tell me that when her boys were young, their stuff, like Nerf darts and such, scattered around the house sometimes exasperated her until she read my note about how much I enjoyed seeing my son’s rubber bands hanging from my elegant garland in our living room because it reminded me of how much fun we enjoyed during our rubber band gunfights. It was then that my friend realized the value of those darts lying around the house. It was then that she relaxed, smiled, and valued those fleeting precious moments of childhood.

~Every time I find myself under our dining room table to dust, I remember all the fun I had with the children in our homemade tents, pretending to be camping or surviving on a deserted island or resting after a long day’s expedition through the mountains or…Creating fun for children is a wonderful gift from God!

~During a spring rain, take the children out to jump in puddles.

~Hold a Let’s Thank God for Chickens egg hunt in the yard with colored hard-boiled eggs and in the house with foil colored chocolate eggs. Begin the party by playing farm with the children. Tell them that they need to go outside to collect the eggs for breakfast. Hand them little painted buckets, bandanas, and straw hats. After breakfast, tell them that a chicken came into the house last night and laid eggs all over the house, which they must find in a hurry. Hand them their buckets again, and let them scatter all over the house to find the chocolate eggs.

~Make pictures of little chicks by gluing yellow feathers on an outline of a chick. Use raisins for eyes, candy corn for beaks, and twigs for feet.

~Make Rice Krispies treats in the shape of nests and fill with foil colored chocolate eggs and Peeps.

~Have the children help you decorate the table for spring.

~Place a Rice Krispies treat at each family member’s place at the lovely spring decorated table.

~Make collages with the discarded, cracked, colored eggshells.

COME GATHER AT OUR TABLE

The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg

Place eggs in a pot of cold water. Set on stove and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil, turn off the heat and cover with a lid. Allow the eggs to sit for 10 minutes. Color with food coloring. After the hunt, remove shells. Slice lengthwise. Remove the yolk, mash, and mix with Miracle Whip, squirt of Dijon mustard, pinch salt, and chopped green onions or chives. Pipe back into white part of egg, or mash entire egg and make egg salad mini sandwiches by placing between two pieces of bread. Then cut the bread from corner to corner both ways to make four little triangular sandwiches.

Aunt Evelyn’s Brisket (by way of grandma Vicki and grandma Dorothy) from Gwyneth Paltrow’s My Father’s Daughter: Delicious Easy Recipes Celebrating Family and Togetherness (Sonia just made this while I was working on the newsletter. It was very tasty and would make a lovely Easter dinner. Just serve over buttered noodles alongside asparagus drizzled with hollandaise sauce, buttered carrots and peas, creamed kohlrabi, salad with cranberry vinaigrette, and homemade crescent rolls.)

Gwyneth writes: “My father’s brother, Bobby, married a girl named Evelyn a long, long time ago. Evelyn is a Sephardic Jew and had an amazing mother, the matriarch of the family; Grandma Vicki. My paternal grandmother, Dorothy, lived down the street from Grandma Vicki, and they would frequently break bread together. They all made brisket, and each family was famous for its own version. Although I have not eaten red meat for years, I remember the days of eating this brisket and loving the tender, falling-apart meat, which was always served with butter noodles. When I was working on the recipes for this family book, I felt I had to include a brisket to be true to the long line of Paltrow, Weigert, and Hertz women before me for whom this dish was so essential. We got all of the recipes together (one included dry-rubbing the meat with Lipton onion soup mix!) and devised a way to amalgamate and elevate all at the same time. Julia Turshen, my right hand in helping me put this book together, did the tasting with her mother and grandmother, and it got a big thumbs-up.”

3-pound brisket

1 T. paprika

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 t. coarse salt

1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper

7 T. extra virgin olive oil, divided

2 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced

4 carrots, peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces

2 c. good red wine

1/2 c. chicken stock

Preheat oven to 300º. Stir together the paprika, garlic, salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Rub this spice mixture all over the brisket and let it sit at room temperature while you cook the vegetables.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Place the onions in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish and return the pan to the heat with 2 additional tablespoons of olive oil. Add the carrots to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the carrots to the onions. Return the pan to the stove, turn the heat to high, and add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil. Deeply brown the brisket on both sides, about 4 minutes a side. Place the brisket on top of the vegetables. Add the wine to the pan, bring to a boil, and let it cook for 3 minutes. Pour the wine and the chicken stock over the brisket and vegetables.

Cover the casserole tightly with foil and bake for 3 hours. (Sonia just cooked it in our roaster with the lid on.) Remove the brisket from the casserole and let it cool while you finish the sauce. Blend half of the cooked vegetables with about 1 cup of the cooking liquid in a blender until smooth. Return the blended mixture to the remaining vegetables and juice (this helps to thicken the sauce). Slice the brisket as thinly as you like it and either serve immediately or place the slices in the sauce, wrap tightly, and reheat in a 300º oven when ready to serve.

ECONOMY

Primarily, the management, regulation, and government of a family or the concerns of a household. A frugal and judicious use of money; the management which expends money to advantage, and incurs no waste. Economy includes also a prudent management of all the means by which property is saved or accumulated; a judicious application of time, of labor, and of the instruments of labor.

Management of the Family

After years of accompanying me through the two day process of exchanging everyone’s wardrobe for the present season, Sonia just naturally begins the process as soon as a warm breeze appears on the horizon or a chill in the air comes our way. She then completes the job with color coordinating everyone’s clothes just as I taught her when she was a little girl. It is such a joy to reap the reward of domestic discipleship—especially since I always loathed this job.

Incurs No Waste

~Clothes that no longer fit are recycled by giving them to other homeschooling families.

~Sentimental clothing is stored in the attic marked “keepsake” so that our children have special outfits to pass on to their own children. One young man from our church just returned a suit because he remembered that Josiah wanted it back for his boys.

~We reuse all the hangers we receive from the cleaners and often ask if they have any they want to recycle.

~Discarded cotton shirts, pants, underwear, and socks are cut into rags. The best are kept for cleaning our home, while the rest go in the boys’ rag box in the garage.

~Ripped stockings are kept for collecting the lint from the dryer hose when Jon redirects the heat inside during the winter.

SPRING CLEANING RESTORES GOD’S ORDER

Growing up among my scrubby Dutch relatives, I not only heard that “cleanliness was next to godliness” but also saw the affects of this conviction, as homes, porches, grounds, and businesses were meticulously kept clean and in order. My own father had our store’s floors mopped twice every day, rain or shine. The merchandise was dusted daily; the front doors and windows kept sparkling clean. Everything was in order, including our storage room, which contained shelf upon shelf of merchandise. The many steps up to our doctor’s offices were swept, mopped, and polished, as were the outdoor entrances. Even the flowerbeds and fishpond on our outdoor patio were kept perfectly clean, which might explain why I vacuum at least once a day and why I sweep and mop my kitchen floor every day.

Although not expressly explained in biblical terms, nor specifically found in Proverbs, this ancient proverb certainly reflects God’s character, and subsequently our duty to bring orderliness and cleanliness to the earth. Why? As stated in 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” So while I keep things as orderly and clean as I can because of my parents’ example, as a Christian, I now understand that my home, yard, vehicles, and our place of business ultimately should reflect the excellencies of my heavenly Father.

Now before I go any further, let me tell you that it is nearly impossible to keep 900 square feet perfectly clean and orderly with five people, two dogs, and two cats while taking care of CHEF, Summers on the Lawn, The Lord’s Family Fellowship, my parents, schoolwork, boys and workers for lunch each day, homeschooling families in our home while also coming and going to other’s homes and events. But even though it is not perfect, Sonia and I surely do try to keep everything clean and orderly because our family prefers it that way, but even more importantly, because it is a reflection on who we profess to be our Father.

Holy, Perfect, Pure, Immutable

Now, let us for a moment look at our Father’s character. 1 John 1:5 “…God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” Psalm 145:17 “The LORD is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.” Habakkuk 1:13 “Thou are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity…” Psalm 18:30 “As for God, His way is perfect…” James 1:17 “The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Malachi 3:6 “I am the Lord, I change not.” 1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not the author of confusion…” Isaiah 6:3 “…Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.”

The Author of Orderliness

Natural laws, referred to in Jeremiah 33:25 as “ordinances of heaven and earth,” exist because God is the author of orderliness and has thus designed His universe to follow His law of orderliness. This is clearly expressed in the seasons, the earth’s rotation, the moon’s cycles, and even in the mathematical patterns found in leaf arrangements, flowers, pine cones, beehives, the trunks of palm trees, and much more. The laws of nature, laws of planetary motion, laws of physics, laws of chemistry, laws of mathematics, laws of logic, and the law of Biogenesis all point to the logical, orderly magnificence of God as seen in the following scriptures.

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork.” Genesis 1:1-4:31 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness…And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good…”

As sons of our Father, charged with a mandate to take dominion, we, who represent Him on earth, then, are to be holy and do things in an orderly manner. 1 Peter 1:16 “Because it is written, ‘Be ye holy; for I am holy.’” 1 Corinthians 14:40 “All things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.” Leviticus 20:22 “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.”

Examples of cleanliness of body, mind, soul, conduct, and surroundings are scattered throughout scripture, but for brevity’s sake, I have listed only a few.

Exodus 30:19 “Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it; when they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, so that they will not die; or when they approach the altar to minister, by offering up in smoke a fire sacrifice to the LORD.”

Exodus 15:22-27 “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea , and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter…Then He made for them a statute and regulation; and there He tested them. And He said, ‘If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I the LORD am your healer.’”

2 Kings 2:19-22 “And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.”

2 Chronicles 4:6 “He then made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. In them the things to be used for the burnt offerings were rinsed, but the sea was to be used by the priests for washing.”

Deuteronomy 23:12-14 “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with our tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that I may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.”

Ezekiel 36:25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.” Isaiah 1:16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil.”

Leviticus 14:7-9 “And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field. He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days. But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows-all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he shall be clean.”

Leviticus 22:8 “He shall not eat an animal which dies or is torn by beasts, becoming unclean by it; I am the LORD.”

Deuteronomy 14:21 “The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days.”

John 13:10 “Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet…’”

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The Lord even speaks on what to do with mildew in Leviticus 14:33-57.

Cleanliness and Orderliness Proceed from a Due Reverence to God

In Advancement of Learning, Francis Bacon wrote that “cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.” Two centuries later John Wesley wrote, “Slovenliness is no part of religion.”

Throughout history, Christianity has significantly influenced implementation of public sanitation and healthcare, focused on body (clean water, healthy food, better hygiene, hospitals), mind (education), and soul (evangelism). In our own country and around the world at large, it has been Christians who have founded schools, churches, and hospitals.

A great example of how Christians bring orderliness and cleanliness to chaos and filth is found in the book Eric Liddell: Pure Gold by David McCasland. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese moved China’s American, British, Dutch, and Belgian missionaries into an internment camp, which had formerly been a missionary compound founded by American Presbyterians. Their account follows.

“Inside an area of about one city block were school buildings, a church seating nearly 700, some 400 individual rooms, and a hospital. The buildings were structurally sound but had been stripped by successive, marauding bands of soldiers. The hospital, a gift from Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , had been one of the finest in North China before the war. Now, the heating system with its steam for sterilization, along with all the water pipes, had been ripped out, leaving gaping holes in the walls. The X-ray machine, operating tables, and every item of surgical equipment had been removed. Dirt, plaster, and filth covered the floors.

The pathways throughout the compound were littered with broken furniture, bricks, and other debris…The immediate crisis centered on the camp latrines. With water pipes torn out and no means to flush, they had become cesspools whose stench initially repelled even those in greatest need. After three days of talk and suggestions about how to solve the problem, a group of Catholic priests and nuns, along with a few Protestant missionaries, donned rubber boots and armed themselves with buckets and mops. With handkerchiefs tied as masks on their faces, they waded in and cleaned out the latrines.

Weihsien Camp was under the control of Japanese Consular officials who expected the internees to organize their affairs and perform all the labor necessary to keep the camp functioning…The internees immediately set about making the buildings and facilities livable. Fifteen doctors and a group of volunteers worked to clean and equip the hospital. Within two weeks they had a ward of beds, a working laboratory, and the capability to perform surgery. In other areas of camp life those with experience and skills trained others to cook, bake bread, repair plumbing, and build furniture out of what they found in the rubbish pile. Nine Committees-Education, General Affairs, Engineering, Quarters, Medical, Food supplies, Finance, Employment, and Discipline-each headed by a man with business experience, looked after the day to day details of life.

Every able-bodied person in camp, including women and older teens, was assigned a job and expected to work at least three hours each day…Bankers became bakers; missionaries became bricklayers…

Eric was asked to divide his time between teaching in the camp school and organizing athletic games. He was also elected to the Weihsien Christian Fellowship Committee, a group responsible for planning evangelical worship services and special meetings.

The Education Committee made sure that no one lacked the opportunity to learn. Along with holding school for the children, volunteers taught classes for anyone wanting to learn Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, and French. Courses in Astronomy, philosophy, and accounting were offered along with gramophone concerts and lectures on subjects ranging from the Greek classics to Admiral Byrd. On Sundays, the church was in use throughout the day as various groups and denominations met for worship.”

This true life example of Christian missionaries restoring orderliness and cleanliness to a filthy, disorderly mess serves as a testimony to all generations of how God’s Spirit works through His people to take dominion of the earth’s corruption for His glory.

Cleaning Restores God’s Order and Serves as an Example of Removing Sin

As seen in Genesis chapter one, the world God created was very, very good. However, when sin entered, it brought with it disorder, filth, and corruption. Cleaning, then, restores God’s order and creates an environment, albeit compromised by our sinful natures, closer to paradise. So as the Temple , with all its rules on order, cleanliness, and beauty, reflects our righteous, holy, magnificent King, so, too, should our bodies, minds, souls, conduct, and surroundings.

Daily we sweep and mop the kitchen floor, vacuum the carpets, wash dishes, clean the kitchen, empty the wastebaskets, wash clothes, straighten the house, and in the summer, wash our patio table. Every other day, we replace our dishcloth with a new one. Every few days we scrub down our bathroom and replace our bathroom hand towel with a fresh one. Sometimes the hand towel is replaced daily depending on use and if we have company.

Weekly we scrub the kitchen sink, wash down the things that stay on the counter, change the sheets, replace all the bathroom towels and washcloths, scrub the bathroom again, including the tub, dust the furniture, replace flower arrangements around the house, redecorate the dining room table, spruce up or redecorate the house, vacuum the cats’ favorite pieces of furniture, clean out the vehicles, straighten the garage, pick up after the dogs, cut grass, spruce up the yard, sweep and mop the front and back porch…

Every few weeks, we clean out the refrigerator, wash the windows that need it, rub oil on the furniture, vacuum the furniture, air fluff the throws, flip the bedroom mattresses, feather dust books…

Twice a year, in spring and fall, we go room by room, washing down the ceilings, walls, windows, and woodwork, including all shutters. Wash the ceiling chandeliers. Dust the recessed lighting. We move the furniture to vacuum carpets and wash the hardwood floors. We vacuum the upholstered furniture—completely, removing cushions, and vacuuming all the fabric. We wash bathroom curtain, shower curtain, plastic liner, and shower walls. We air fluff our pillows, the throws, and drapes. We refurbish the furniture with stain and oil, vacuum the lamp shades, wash throw rugs, dust inside the china cabinet, clean the kitchen cabinets’ exterior, clean inside the cabinets and reorganize, clean and reorganize all drawers and closets, discard things we do not use, and polish silver. We wash bedspreads, wash and iron bed skirts, replace wardrobes, color coordinate closets, dust books and book shelves, clean marble tops, wash and iron table tops. We put decorations in storage, bring out the new season’s decorations, and create new venues in every room. Finally, we wash the animals (the dogs are washed more frequently in the summer) so that everything is clean. And, behold, it is very good, as we continually praise Him for authoring cleanliness and orderliness and creating in us a desire to have it so.

FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE

When Jedidiah was a little boy, he incurred a horrific burn from placing his hand on the end of a dune buggy’s exhaust pipe. One of the mothers present told me to boil water with as much salt as the water would absorb. Once dissolved, I cooled the saline solution with ice cubes, transferred it to a small plastic tub, and placed it on a plastic mat on the floor. I then fixed a little bed on the floor so Jedidiah could keep his hand in that water all night. I kept the water cool by adding more ice cubes. This not only reduced his pain so he could sleep but also greatly aided in the healing process.

THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES: AMERICA’S UNCIVIL WAR by John Dwyer

(The Homeschoolers Ultimate textbook on the Civil War) http://johnjdwyer.com/library.html

“In Europe , the passion for nationalism grew violent…by calls to unite linguistic or geographical groups into larger, stronger, more progressive and visionary entities. The precepts of nationalism taught that political philosophy could accomplish what religion, heritage, culture, economy, and language never before had.

The doctrines of the French Revolution, spearheaded by men such as…Rousseau…Robespierre, and Voltaire became the guiding principles of politics. Chief among these was egalitarianism; egalitarianism is different from equality in that it seeks to force equality upon everyone in every sphere of life. Two Germans, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels…conceived a plan to bring about this nationalistic unity.

Nationalism fostered the idea that …government…would become a sort of benevolent social engineer fixing the woes of society through legislation and education…The government can invade every aspect of a person’s life…If some people do not have jobs, the central government will make certain they either obtain jobs or are paid for not having a job, all in order to provide for the general welfare. Meanwhile, if people make too much money or corner the market on a product in an unfair way, the central government steps in and reduces them to a more reasonable estate.

In 1848…Marx and Engels hammered out a document they called The Communist Manifesto. They created an atmosphere for radical revolution. That very year, the most wrenching series of civil wars and revolutions in all western civilization up to that time occurred simultaneously in battle zones across Europe .

What became the single overarching Revolution of 1848 failed in all eighteen places where it broke out. But the ideas it spawned would survive to define the century that followed…The tens of thousands of Europeans who participated in the 1848 revolutions and then immigrated to America (again, especially the North) accelerated this influence.

The revolutionaries of 1848 faced an America with three different cultures, economies, and religious bases. They determined to remove those differences by a series of political maneuvers.

The Communist Manifesto…first was…the abolition of private property…Second was the development of a graduated income tax. The rich, who could afford it, would pay high taxes. The poor, who could not afford it, might not pay any taxes. The more money a person earned, the greater would be their tax burden. This would accomplish a leveling of the economic factors of the society.

The third plank of the Manifesto called for the abolition of the inheritance of a person’s property to family members, churches, and others when they died through a severe tax penalty called an inheritance tax. Such a penalty would force every new generation of a family to start from scratch.

Fourth would be the confiscation of the rights of certain peoples…‘Rebels’…lost all their rights as the (nation-) state was not the only mechanism by which rights might be received…it could abrogate rights at any point or for any cause, but particularly for those whose loyalty to the state seemed suspect, dissent was squashed.

Next, this vision for remaking the world included a series of state-controlled agencies to administer such things as banking; communication and transportation; the mechanisms of the economy such as imports, exports, duties, trading, and the control of the currency of exchange; labor; agriculture…and education. The 1848 revolutionaries believed that whole societies could be completely remade through a series of political actions.

America as a whole resisted the trend toward nationalism until the 1850s. Then the Whig Party, the old Nationalist Republican Party that such men as Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun had led, dispensed with the vision of those men and began to propound the doctrine of nationalism. A brilliant and eloquent young Congressman from Illinois was the leading champion for nationalism in the House of Representatives during his single term of 1848-1850. His name was Abraham Lincoln. He believed the …American nation-state…must unite itself around nationalistic aims, reduce its differences, smooth over regional distinctions, and become one.

Unification was the clarion cry of the American nationalists, unity at any cost—even bloodshed, the decimation of centuries of human tradition, the removal of self-determination, majority vote, the will of the people. To the nationalists, the ideals of nationalism superseded even those of freedom and liberty. That vision one day proved the fulcrum, or turning point, upon which the debates of the 1850s and early 1860s hung. Nationalism—and anti-nationalism—ultimately divided the nation and helped bring it to war, and paved the way for a new kind of nation that emerged during the postwar years of Reconstruction and beyond.

Well aware of the revolutions even then spilling blood in all corners of Europe, Lincoln said in an 1848 speech on the floor of the House…‘There are two opposing forces in this world…Ultimately these forces will come together…ultimately the destiny of the generations to come will be determined by how we act on this battlefield.’”

MULTI-GENERATIONAL FAMILY BUSINESS

Schnucks Supermarkets

 In 1939, Edwin and Anna Schnucks, with their two sons, opened their first 1,000 square foot market in north St. Louis. By 1946 they opened a 2,700 square foot supermarket. Now in their 73rd year of operation, they have grown to over 100 stores in five states making them the 18th largest privately owned grocery chain in the United States . Still family owned and operated, the fourth generation of the Schnucks family now works in the business, proving once again that working together as a family increases both wealth and property.

Prevedelli Farms

The Prevedelli family’s work ethic and commitment to work together has kept them in business for 67 years.

From “Apple Harvest Under Way in Pajaro Valley Orchards” by Donna Jones, Santa Cruz Sentinel: “Silvia Prevedelli plucked a fat red apple from a tree at the family ranch off Pioneer Road on Thursday. ‘The Jonagold apple, it’s good for eating, excellent for cooking,’ Prevedelli said, rolling the fruit between her hands to polish off the dust. ‘This one, the flavor is intense. It’s beautiful.’

It’s apple harvest time in the Pajaro Valley , and while the once top Pajaro Valley crop has long been supplanted by berry production, at Prevedelli Farms, the orchard prevails. The family-run operation boasts 26 varieties of organic apples and a direct-to-consumer marketing plan that keeps the business in the black.

Three generations are actively involved in the harvest, packing and selling at farmers markets and restaurants from Carmel to the San Francisco Bay Area. ‘It’s a lot of work. I’m going to tell you that,’ Prevedelli said. ‘We work every day, weekends, Saturday and Sunday. But I always say if you love it, it’s not work.’ Family members say it’s also the way they’ve kept their trees as others have ripped out orchards to make way for berries.”

Kaitlynn’s Deli and Ice Cream Shop

Last night at the dinner table, Josiah announced that he had some articles that he wanted to read to all of us after dinner. Josiah and Jon are the ones who peruse our Rural Missouri paper for articles to read to the family. This time the article was on a young entrepreneur who had been homeschooled.

I really liked the way the article began because it accurately revealed the effect Hollywood has on our youth. “Small-Town Saviors: Young business owners help spur Brunswick ’s revitalization” by Kyle Spradley begins: “Movies often portray the classic story of a small-town kid leaving for the big city. The kid believes there is no future at home, and that the city is where dreams are made.

During the past half century, American culture has emulated Hollywood . In the early 1950s more than a third of the country lived in rural communities. Today only 20 percent of the population lives outside of cities.

Blake Dankert loves his small town, but when he graduated from Brunswick High School, he believed a degree for the University of Missouri would lead to promising endeavors in bigger markets.

But it was the small-town life that has turned the 25-year-old and his fellow tenant, 21-year-old Kaitlynn Reichert, into prominent business owners in Brunswick . Their efforts have helped revitalize the river town.”

He goes on to quote the young man that running a business is never-ending and certainly eliminates a personal life, but he counts it all worth the work because he loves what he does.

Kaitlynn, on the other hand, did not leave her small town to attend school. She remained on her family’s farm for her education. Running a farm is a business; thus, Kaitlynn grew up with an entrepreneurial vision. She attributes gratitude to her mom for training her to work and giving her an idea of how to raise money for leadership camp.

It was actually this prompting that led Kaitlynn into business as she began making her mom’s recipe for Turtle Pecan cheesecakes to raise funds for camp. That was over five years ago, and Kaitlynn is still baking cheesecakes for customers, now at her deli and ice cream shop in Brunswick, Missouri.

Both entrepreneurs confess their desire to quit at times because they work so hard, but the satisfaction they derive from their customers, the impact they are making on their community, the inspiration they have brought to others in their community to support their hometown, and the sense of accomplishment it brings them makes it all worthwhile at the end of the day.

For more information, visit Kaitlynn’s Deli and Ice Cream, 121 E. Broadway, Brunswick, MO 65236, 660-548-3600, www.kaitlynns.com and Plantation Antiques and Interiors, 117 E. Broadway, Brunswick, MO 65236, 660-548-3955, www.plantation-antiques.com.

THE DISMANTLING OF AMERICA

Diane Drinkard shares: Obama agency rules Pepsi’s use of aborted fetal cells in soft drinks constitutes “ordinary business operations”

The Obama Administration has given its blessing to PepsiCo to continue utilizing the services of a company that produces flavor chemicals for the beverage giant using aborted human fetal tissue. LifeSiteNews.com reports that the Obama Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided that PepsiCo’s arrangement with San Diego, Cal.-based Senomyx, which produces flavor enhancing chemicals for Pepsi using human embryonic kidney tissue, simply constitutes “ordinary business operations.”

The issue began in 2011 when the non-profit group Children of God for Life (CGL) first broke the news about Pepsi’s alliance with Senomyx, which led to massive outcry and a worldwide boycott of Pepsi products. At that time, it was revealed that Pepsi had many other options at its disposal to produce flavor chemicals, which is what its competitors do, but had instead chosen to continue using aborted fetal cells or as Senomyx deceptively puts it, “isolated human taste receptors.”

A few months later, Pepsi’s shareholders filed a resolution petitioning the company to “adopt a corporate policy that recognizes human rights and employs ethical standards which do not involve using the remains of aborted human beings in both private and collaborative research and development agreements.” But the Obama Administration shut down this 36-page proposal, deciding instead that Pepsi’s used of aborted babies to flavor its beverage products is just business as usual, and not a significant concern.

“We’re not talking about what kind of pencils PepsiCo wants to use. We are talking about exploiting the remains of an aborted child for profit,” said Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director of CGL, concerning the SEC decision. “Using human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) to produce flavor enhancers for their beverages is a far cry from routine operations!”

To be clear, the aborted fetal tissue used to make Pepsi’s flavor chemicals does not end up in the final product sold to customers, according to reports. It is used, instead, to evaluate how actual human taste receptors respond to these chemical flavorings. But the fact that Pepsi uses them at all when viable, non-human alternatives are available illustrates the company’s blatant disregard for ethical and moral concerns in the matter.

Back in January, Oklahoma Senator Ralph Shortey proposed legislation to ban the production of aborted fetal cell-derived flavor chemicals in his home state. If passed, S.B. 1418 would also reportedly ban the sale of any products that contain flavor chemicals derived from human fetal tissue, which includes Pepsi products as well as products produced by Kraft and Nestle. http://www.naturalnews.com

Public School Agenda

Many of you know that I was trained to be a public school teacher and actually taught first grade for a short while. And for those of you who have attended my new homeschoolers’ workshop in prior years, you actually heard quite a bit about my experience at the University of Missouri-St. Louis as I exposed the real agenda of the public school system. But for those of you who are new to homeschooling, let me just pass on a sampling of what I have conveyed for years.

In spite of the fact that I graduated Magna Cum Laude with the second highest score ever given to a student teacher, for all my superior achievements, my certification for teaching children had very little to do with reading, writing, and arithmetic, but instead had everything to do with creating social change.

To this end, my education included viewing a pornographic movie of homosexuals engaged in the explicit act of immorality. This was presented as a viable and acceptable lifestyle. Evolution was presented as fact. Absolutes were systematically destroyed by demonstrating the relativity of beliefs and values through highlighting the contributions of cultures antithetical to our own Christian heritage.

Examples of matriarchal societies were touted as exemplary while the Puritans and founding fathers were denigrated to bigoted, chauvinist pigs. This, of course, naturally led to a discussion on the abuse women have sustained throughout Christian history, pointing to the nations where women ruled over men as offering a hopeful alternative to household drudgery and the bondage women place themselves in through childbearing.

By contrast, the Father of American Education, Horace Mann, and the Father of Modern Education, John Dewey, were commended for their contributions toward education and social reform. Accordingly, early childhood education, along with sex education, beginning as early as kindergarten, was identified as paramount to the social change necessary for an enlightened people.

As a Christian, I was offended and at times outraged over the instructors’ blatant rebellion against God. In response, I often privately spoke with the instructors, conveying my alarm over their indoctrination. Though they openly revealed their admiration for my outward beauty, poise, and articulation of my beliefs (which I found interesting since they were viewing God’s Holy Spirit in me), my beliefs, nonetheless, were emphatically rejected as archaic and detrimental to society, rendering them inadmissible.

Consequently, I was determined not to relinquish any of my children to this demonic system. Besides, I always thought it was bizarre that parents, who once carefully chose their children’s babysitters, would suddenly turn them over to complete strangers for the majority of their children’s waking hours. And what a strange notion to think that schools prepare our children for real life when they will never again be with 30 peers and one older adult.

The stark reality of the situation remains that with 77 million children enrolled in the public school system, Americans cannot possibly expect to preserve our American Christian heritage and the Constitutional Republic it wrought. The irony of the situation is that our tyrannical government is forcing us to pay for our own destruction!

In the documentary Indoctrination, Herb Titus quotes Thomas Jefferson from his statute for religious freedom, which he penned in 1786: “To tax a man to promote the propagation of opinions with which he disagrees is both sinful and tyrannical.”

Even when I began public school fifty years ago in the ‘60s, the instructors were undermining my allegiance to my heavenly Father, my parents, and my country. That is why it is so amazing to me that Christians justify their failure to follow God’s mandate to disciple their children. And worse still is their justification of their blatant rebellion to God by placing their children in pagan schools, with the ludicrous notion that somehow their school is so much better than the rest. When in truth the facts clearly reveal that public schooling has very little to do with imparting basic knowledge but with transforming our children into humanists, and our culture into a socialistic State.

And make no mistake about the National Education Association’s intent, for their agenda has been clearly defined from the beginning. For they understand better than most parents that if you want to capture the heart of any nation, you capture the heart of the children!

Their agenda reminds me of what Adolph Hitler said in 1933: “When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already…what are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’” (God and Caesar by John Eidsmoe, page 143)

Similarly, after winning a battle against the homosexuals’ push in Colorado , the leader of the homosexuals’ agenda told Kevin Swanson that families might have won that particular battle, but the homosexuals had already won the war because they possessed the heart of America ’s children.

From God and Caesar by John Eidsmoe, a 2012 CHEF Conference Speaker

“In reality, religion and education have not been divorced from each other. The public schools have not divorced themselves from religion; rather, the religion of the public schools has changed. In the 1700s, the religion of American education was orthodox and mostly Calvinist Christianity. In the 1800s this religion was replaced by a more liberalized version of Christianity bordering on Unitarianism. And in the twentieth century the religion of the American public schools appears to be something closer to secular humanism.”

“While Horace Mann’s goal was to remove the schools from the control of Calvinist church authorities, he never intended to remove them from the influence of religion. However, his view of religion was much more liberal than that of his adversaries. A Unitarian, Mann piously believed in God, but also in the basic goodness and rationality of man. His biographer, Jonathan Messerli, writes of Horace Mann’s views: ‘What the church had become for medieval man, the public school must now become for democratic and rational man. God would be replaced by the concept of the Public Good, sin and guilt by the more positive virtues of Victorian morality and conformity… All of this was now possible if only reasonable men and women would join together to create a well managed system of schooling, where educators could manipulate and control learning as effectively as the competent new breed of engineers manage the industrial processes at work in their burgeoning textile factories and iron and steel mills. For the first time in the history of western man, it seemed possible for an intellectual and moral elite to effect mass behavioral changes and bring about a new golden age of enlightened ethics, humanism, and affluence.’”

“Just as Horace Mann was the most influential educator of the 1800s, also John Dewey was the most influential educator of the 1900s. A signer of Humanist Manifesto I, Dewey was a thoroughgoing humanist. And for Dewey, religion played a clear role in American education: …the American people is conscious that its schools serve best because of religion in serving the cause of social unification; and that under certain conditions schools are more religious in substance and in promise without any of the conventional badges and machinery of religious instruction than they could be in cultivating these forms at the expense of the state consciousness.”

(By the way, John Dewey “attributed his ‘intellectual awakening’ to T. H. Huxley’s college textbook on physiology, which shaped his vision of man as entirely the product of natural evolutionary processes.” –Gale Encyclopedia of Biography)

“Humanists desire to use the public schools to promote a religion of secular humanism. As Sidney Meade writes: Of necessity, the state and its public education system is and always has been teaching religion…The public schools in the United States took over one of the basic responsibilities that traditionally was always assumed by an established church. In this sense, the public school system of the United States is the established church. In this context one can understand why it is that the religion of many Americans is democracy—why their real faith is the ‘democratic faith’—the religion of the public schools.”

CHRISTIANS’ STEADFASTNESS

IndoctriNation Documentary

Scottish filmmaker and homeschooling father of seven, Colin Gunn, takes his family across America in a yellow school bus to film his documentary on the public school system. In the course of the movie, Colin reveals the history of our modern educational system and exposes the insidious humanistic, anti-Christian, pro-homosexual system for what it is.

In light of the statistics that ninety percent of professing Christians send their children to public schools coupled with the insight that eighty-eight percent of these children are denying their faith by the time they graduate, the time has come for us to face the reality that our country will soon be lost if we do not proactively work to transform our culture.

If we want to fulfill Christ’s mandate to make disciples, then we must share the truth that God clearly conveys in His Word about the family. For those who are sending their children to pagans for instruction, we must expose the system as anti-Christian and reveal the destruction of their children’s souls, if allowed to remain. If they attend churches that support these pagan institutions, whether openly or by their silence on the subject, we must help them to find a godly church because if the church does not have the family right, they have nothing right at all. And finally, we must help them get started in discipling their children—for homeschooling is not a viable alternative, but a clear mandate from God.

To this end, Jon and I recommend the distribution of the IndoctriNation DVD to pastors and Christians caught up in this demonic system. To order your copies visit www.indoctrinationmovie.com. Our thanks to Matthew and Anca Sheffer for giving this DVD to us.

Jon and Candy Summers share:

Christian Home Educators Fellowship—Faithfully honoring God and serving the homeschooling community for the past 28 years! www.chef-missouri.com

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME MARCH 2012 NEWSLETTER

I.      CHEF Information and Activities

1.     Prayer Requests for the Ritter Family and the Koenig Family

2.  Contributions Requested for the 2012 CHEF Conference Video Promotional

3.     Encouraging Notes from Two Young Adults

4.     CHEF 28th Annual 2012 Graduation Meetings, March 8 and April 12

5.     CHEF Graduation Ceremony, June 2

6.    CHEF Meetings and English/Scottish Country Dance Practices, March 9, 30; April 13, 27; May 11

7.     CHEF 14th Annual Heart to Heart Mother and Daughter Tea, March 15

8.     CHEF 2012 Conference, June 18-19: Hotels and Wade Myers Workshops

9.     CHEF Art Festival and Photo Contest Winners

10.   Special Opportunities-Kevin Swanson’s Economics Conference March 8-10, Chicago , IL

II.     There’s No Place Like Home Articles

         1.     Weblog: Big Cedar Lodge-A Great Getaway for Families

         2.     A Personal Letter from Candy

         3.     Bible Lesson: Exodus 10

For those of you who are new to our email mailing list, you may read recent email newsletters on the website at www.chef-missouri.com (click on TNPLH Newsletter) or www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/.

CHEF INFORMATION AND ACTIVITIES

Prayer Request for Ritter Family

Please pray for the Ritter family as both Tom and Debra have cancer. Tom has colorectal cancer; Debra has breast cancer. Please pray for complete healings for both Tom and Debra, divine wisdom for the surgeons, and a peace that surpasses all understanding. Let them be fully aware of God’s love for them every hour of the day and night. Let their fears be turned to joyful hope and this trial transformed into a testimony of God’s miraculous mercy!

Prayer Request for Koenig Family

Randy Koenig and some of the children were supposed to be in Branson when the tornado hit. Thankfully they were not! However, the theater where their family performs was badly damaged, and they had a performance planned for March 23 with their season beginning shortly thereafter in April. So please be praying for them during this time of uncertainty.

Contributions Requested for the 2012 CHEF Conference Video Promotional

The 2012 CHEF conference video promotional and poster will be finished shortly. If you would like to help with a monetary contribution toward the design of the video promotional and poster (which will cost over $3,000), please call us to let us know at 314-521-8487.

Encouraging Notes from Two Young Adults

It is such a blessing for Candy and me to receive letters like these from our young adults. We trust that God is going to do great things with this next generation!

“I just wanted to say thank you for having Mr. Klarich in to speak at the CHEF meeting a few weeks ago. I was very inspired by what he and you two said. You gave me a lot to think about. It was very moving…Thank you for all that you do for all of our families. I am very grateful for the influence you have had on my family all of these years. Thank you! I’m praying for you! Persevero!”

“I love reading your family’s blog. As a norm I am not a blog lover as so many blogs post things not worth reading. As a family, we think time can be better spent doing other things than spending our time reading blogs. Blogs can have the same effect as Facebook and Twitter if not careful. They can be addicting. Your family’s blog is an exception. It inspires and encourages the reader to joyful service to the Lord and family. How we wish there were more like yours. Keep it up, it is a blessing!”

CHEF 28th Annual 2012 Graduation To receive your graduation packet, please call Sonia Summers at 314-521-8487 and leave your name, graduate’s name, phone number, and email address. Meetings: The graduation meetings will be held at Dorsett Village Baptist Church , 2240 Bennington , Maryland Heights MO 63043 , located just off Hwy. 270 near Hwy. 70 from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month: March 8 and April 12. Directions: Take Hwy. 270 to Dorsett. Go west to McKelvey. Make a right on to McKelvey. At the first stoplight the street name changes to Bennington . Go through the stoplight to the first parking lot past Radiant Faith Academy Daycare’s (formerly Kinder Care) playground. Make a right into the parking lot. We will meet in the sanctuary for the first meeting and then in one of the lower level rooms of the main building for all meetings thereafter.

Graduation Ceremony

Our graduation ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 2 from 10:00 a.m. to Noon at Faith Lutheran Evangelical Church, 6101 Telegraph Road , Oakville , MO 63129 . If you take the 270/255 South/East Interstate, exit at Telegraph Road, which is just before the Jefferson Barracks Bridge entering Illinois. After exiting, it is 2 miles south on Telegraph on the right side of the road. The church’s website is www.faithstl.org.

Our Charge Speaker

A member of the Missouri House of Representatives, Kurt Bahr, a Republican, represents part of St. Charles County (District 19). In addition to his legislative duties, Representative Bahr is an entrepreneur and small business owner. He previously served in the United States Air Force as a budget officer in Italy and Los Angeles from 2001-2006.

Representative Bahr is an active member and ambassador in the O’Fallon Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the American Legion, Missouri Right to Life, the National Rifle Association, the St. Charles County Young Republicans, the St. Charles County Pachyderm Club, and an active contributing member of Crosshaven Church .

In addition to being homeschooled for nine years, Representative Bahr received a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Oklahoma Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in public policy from Regent University .

Representative Bahr currently resides in O’Fallon with his wife Jennifer and their four children, Micah , Lydia , Josiah, and Judah.

The following was taken from Kurt’s re-election site.

Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. -Samuel Adams, “Rights of the Colonists as Men” 1772

America was built on the concept of freedom. The principles contained in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are timeless. Our founding fathers recognized that we have inalienable rights given by God. Our politicians have forgotten.

It is time to remind them. I am running for State Representative to stand up to the politicians and special interests who continually trample your rights and spend your family’s hard-earned income. My first priority is to ensure that the smallest minority group–the individual–is protected from ever-increasing governmental control.

As a Christian first, Conservative second, and Republican third, I am committed to serving YOU–the people. Ronald Reagan used to say, “We are a people with a government, not a government with a people.” It is my desire to keep it that way.

I spent years successfully managing a multi-million dollar budget in the U.S. Air Force. I am ready to cut spending in the Missouri House and ensure our children’s future economic freedom. I intensely studied our Founding principles while earning my Master’s Degree in Public Policy from a Conservative, Christian, Constitutional University . I am ready to fight for those principles in the Missouri House. I am now a small business owner and understand that it is the individual, not the government, that creates jobs. High taxes and burdensome regulations discourage entrepreneurship, kill jobs and smother the economy. I am ready to stop the train wreck of crony capitalism and return to a true free market system. Our country–our freedom–is in peril.

Now is the time to stand up for our rights. Now is the time to stand up for our children. Join me in protecting your individual rights. Spread the word to your friends and neighbors. Together, we can keep Freedom First. –Kurt Bahr

Please Note: May 11 will replace the January dance practice that we had to cancel.

CHEF Meetings and English/Scottish Country Dance Practices called by Jeremy Suerman with Volleyball, Basketball and Great Fellowship at Dorsett Village Baptist Church, 2240 Bennington, Maryland Heights MO 63043 on Fridays 7:00 p.m.-Midnight on March 9, 30; April 13, 27; May 11. Meetings are free. Dances: Registration cost at the door is $65 per family or $5 per dancer per class. You do not have to pay for family members who just come to watch. Dancers, ages five and under are free. March 9 will be just dancing and recreation afterwards. March 30 will be a meeting on Family Business (Jon and Candy) from 7:00-8:15 and then dancing and recreation starting at 8:30.

CHEF 14th Annual Heart to Heart Mother and Daughter Tea Thursday, March 15, 7:00-10:00 p.m. at Hawken House Barn, 1155 S. Rock Hill Road , St. Louis , MO 63119 . Cost is $10 per person (to defray cost of room rental, food, and paper goods). Please mail your check payable to CHEF, c/o Sonia Summers , 236 St. Louis Ave. , Ferguson , MO 63135 by March 12 to reserve your place or call 314-521-8487 to make a reservation. Mothers without daughters are welcome to come. Come and enjoy tea and delectable pastries with other homeschooling moms. Anne Belley will also have a variety of tea for sale.

Directions: If you take Hwy. 270 south, exit at Big Bend Road . Go east on Big Bend approximately 4 miles to S. Rock Hill Road . Go right on Rock Hill for 2 blocks. The house is just past Hawken Condominiums on the right. Barn is on right in back of Hawken House. There is no Big Bend exit if you are going north on Hwy. 270. Therefore, if you take Hwy. 270 north, go east on Hwy. 44. Exit at Big Bend Road and go east for approximately 1.5 miles to S. Rock Hill Road . Then follow above directions.

The Keys to Redeeming the Time with Your Children In this presentation at our Tea, Linda Koenig shows how much we, as parents, need to be using every opportunity we have to instill God’s truths and principles in the hearts of our children. One of these days, our children will be gone and beginning families of their own. How we train them right now while they are with us will make a difference in their future lives and in the lives of our grandchildren. Linda gives insights as to how the Lord brought her from being successful and thriving in the business world to where she now uses the talents and abilities the Lord has given her to train her ten children. You will be blessed as she shares stories that happened in her family while raising her children and how she used each circumstance as a learning experience. Ecclesiastes 5:16 says, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The Lord commands us to use our time wisely and to train up our children in the ways of the Lord (Proverbs 22:6). Linda says, “For me, there is nothing more important or more valuable that I could be doing each day, than instilling God’s Principles into the hearts of my children.”

Linda has a passion for teaching. Before being a mother to ten children, she traveled extensively throughout the country teaching at military bases, businesses, and colleges. In 1993, following God’s calling for her life, she came home from the workforce to homeschool and raise at that time her two daughters. Through the years many more children were added until a total of ten children now have been adopted by Linda and her husband, Randy. It truly is a wonderful life! Never a dull moment!

Linda continues to use the talents the Lord has given her by speaking and training others to teach from a biblical perspective making God and the Bible the center of everything we teach and do. She shares insights as to the critical nature of child training, the importance of memorizing Scripture, and much more.

2012 Conference, Strengthening Families Through the Word of God

“My favorite part of the conference is meeting and seeing so many homeschool families. I’ve never seen so many dedicated families in one place!” – High Ridge , MO

“This was a terrific conference. Every detail was attended to. Thank you for your gracious hosting. It was a lovely success.” –Vendor

Hotels Sonia has procured special rates at area hotels. To receive detailed information on those hotels go to:

http://chef-missouri.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=1:25th-annual-christian-home-educators-fellowship&id=10:accommodations&Itemid=4

Please note: Last year we received many calls from families who had trouble securing the CHEF rate at Embassy Suites. Apparently those working at the reservation desk misrepresented the status of rooms to pressure families into securing rooms at a higher rate. If you have any trouble at all, please let us know at 314-521-8487.

Upcoming Workshops by Wade Myers

The Biblical Case for Entrepreneurship What God says in His Word about providing for our families. This session lays out a case based upon the patterns, principles, and precepts of scripture that God calls Christians to be independent and entrepreneurial in their work.

How to Think Like an Entrepreneur Key principles every aspiring entrepreneur needs to learn. This session defines core entrepreneurial concepts and draws lessons from America ’s foremost entrepreneurs, business schools, and consulting firms.

Building a Business from Start to Finish Practical steps on how to build a successful family-based business. This session clearly lays out a step-by-step approach to building a business, from how to define success, generate ideas, evaluate ideas, launch a business, grow a business, and prepare to sell a business.

Before You Launch Your Business The 50 most important things you need to know about your venture. This session takes the audience through the fifty most important business evaluation criteria and describes how to quickly size up any business.

CHEF Art Festival and Photo Contest Winners

Anne Belley shares: Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2012 CHEF Art Festival and Photo Contest. You all did a great job and made the Larimore Plantation look like a real art gallery! We also appreciate the parents who taught and coached their children. Thank you for attending, as well as bringing treats to share, and staying to clean up. Thank you to the Boveys for allowing us to rent the Plantation at such a reasonable cost and for all their help. The Heads helped us speed through set-up this year, provided the cups for drinks, and helped with the clean-up. THANK YOU! Without drop-off locations, the Art Festival would be harder to orchestrate. Thank you again to Andrea McCann, Jaynie Kinne, and Flavia Everman.

Anyone interested in opening their home as a drop-off location for the 2013 Festival next March, please let us know!

Congratulations to all the winners!

ART AWARDS

Age 5:

Emily Roeglin: 1st

Mark Head: 2nd

Katia Belley: 3rd and People’s Choice Award

Age 6:

Ana Griesbauer: 1st; 2nd; and People’s Choice Award

Age 7:

Emma Head: 1st; People’s Choice Award; and Best of Show for 5- through 7-year-olds

Joshua Roeglin: 2nd

Katie Majors: 3rd and Honorable Mention

Age 8:

Samuel Majors: 1st and 3rd

Nico Griesbauer: 2nd and People’s Choice Award

Age 9:

Laura-Lise Belley: 1st; 3rd; and People’s Choice Award

Ben Head: 2nd

Abigail Roeglin: Honorable Mention

Abigail Pinkley: Honorable Mention

Age 10:

Marshall Nass: 1st; People’s Choice Award; and Best of Show for 8- through 10-year-olds

Frank Griesbauer: 2nd and 3rd

Reyna Kee: Honorable Mention (twice)

Age 11:

Alexandre Belley: 1st; 2nd; People’s Choice Award; and Best of Show for 11- through 13-year-olds

Noah Bush: 2nd

Micayla Will: 3rd

Luke Head: Honorable Mention

Zachary Roeglin: Honorable Mention

Age 12:

Caroline Griesbauer: 1st and 2nd

Anthony Meyer: 3rd

Deborah Tippy: Honorable Mention

Olivia Majors: Honorable Mention

David Nass: Honorable Mention and People’s Choice Award

Age 13:

Elodie Belley: 1st and 2nd

Micah Pinkley: 3rd and People’s Choice Award

Tom Brown: Honorable Mention

Age 14:

Joseph Griesbauer: 1st; 2nd; and People’s Choice Award

Rachel Hartmann: 3rd and Honorable Mention

Hannah Ritter: Honorable Mention

Age 15:

Wesley Nass: 1st and People’s Choice Award

Age 16:

Jessica Belley: 1st; 2nd; People’s Choice Award; and Best of Show for 14- through 16-year-olds

David McDevitt: 3rd

Hannah Broyles: Honorable Mention

Jaynie Hunt: Honorable Mention

Age 17:

Michael McDevitt: 1st; 3rd; People’s Choice Award; and Best of Show for 17- through 19-year-olds

Shaylynn Rackers: 2nd (twice)

Esther Aubuchon: Honorable Mention

Ages 18 to 19:

Sam Belley: 1st and People’s Choice Award

Ahnnah Binkley: 2nd

Naomi Brown: 3rd

PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

14- to 16-year-olds:

Hannah Ritter: 1st and People’s Choice Award (tie)

Michael Head: 2nd

Jessica Belley: 3rd

Alyssa Drinkard: Honorable Mention

Katie Wood: Honorable Mention

Andrew Weiland: People’s Choice Award (tie)

17- to 21-year-olds:

Sara Burns: 1st; Honorable Mention; and Best of Show for Photography

Natalie Bast: 2nd

Emma Ritter: 3rd

Deborah Ritter: Honorable Mention and People’s Choice Award

22- to 25-year-olds:

Amariah Ritter: 1st and People’s Choice Award

Breanna Klein: 2nd

Valerie Belley: 3rd

Jedidiah Summers: Honorable Mention

Celeste Drinkard: Honorable Mention

Nikola Belley: Honorable Mention

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES

[This information is communicated to you only as a service to our families. The information contained herein is not screened or verified by CHEF. Please be discerning at all times.]

Special Discount to CHEF Families for Generations With Vision 3rd Annual Family Economics Conference March 8-10, Chicago , IL Are you ready to take your family’s economy to the next level? Is your family ready to start a family business, but you just don’t know where to start? Join Generations with Vision in Chicago for the third annual Family Economics Conference on March 8-10, 2012. This exciting event features a line-up of speakers who will equip your family’s economy for long-term success, including Kevin Swanson, Doug Phillips, Erik Weir, R.C. Sproul, Jr., Steve and Teri Maxwell, Alex and Cassie Michael aka “The Thrifty Couple,” Dave Tucker, and many more. In addition, you’ll be encouraged by the practical wisdom in our 7+ Q&A panels, where you will have opportunity to interact with successful, proven businessmen on a variety of topics ranging from managing money to raising young entrepreneurs.

Just a sample of the topics to be addressed are:

·        Raising Sons to Provide

·        Starting a Business - The First 100 Days

·        Household Budget Management

·        Marketing a Family Business

·        Household Chores and Time Management

·        Nobody Owes You a Job! A Challenge for Young Men

·        A Special Proverbs 31 Track for Ladies

·        ...and much more!

Also included in the price of registration is a family pass to the 2012 Annual Liberty Day Celebration on Saturday night after the conference (value of $59). You’ll enjoy a dynamic professional reenactment of the 2nd Virginia convention and Patrick Henry’s legendary “Give Me Liberty!” speech, along with many other festivities.

As a special for the readers of this email, you can save $20 off your family registration by using the coupon code CHEF when you register online. You’ll save $20 off the already low price of $279 per family for the entire weekend, including admission to the Liberty Day Celebration. Go to http://familyeconomics2012.com/ to register now!

Wild Bird Rehabilitation Hello! I am writing to thank you for helping us get the message out about the program at Wild Bird Rehab. I have gotten numerous calls and emails from people who are interested in adopting baby sparrows and starlings this spring. I now have more than 25 interested families. Thanks for your help. –Carolyn Bast, volunteer for Wild Bird Rehabilitation (and homeschool mom)

Holly Warden shares: Todd Akin’s congressional office will be participating in the Annual Congressional Art Competition, which will be held on Saturday, April 4, 2012. Only high school students residing in Missouri ’s Second Congressional District are eligible. The winning entry from Congressman Akin’s congressional district will be displayed with other winning entries on the walls of the Cannon Tunnel for one year. If you have any questions or for required entry forms, please contact staff assistant Holly Warden at 314-590-0029 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

[Every congressional district usually participates in the Art Competition. Please contact your local district’s office if you do not live in the Second Congressional District for participation information. Students can go to www.house.gov to verify which congressional district they are in.]

Debbie Klein shares: Storm spotting classes are being scheduled through the National Weather Service’s Skywarn program. St. Louis ’ classes are known as some of the best in the country and consist of one 3-hour meeting. There is no cost, age limit or registration. You may attend as a family, and quiet attentive children seem to be welcome (or at least unnoticed). Our whole family enjoys attending, as the content is primarily storm photos and videos, with explanations of what to watch for versus what is typically benign (for example, “the scary looking cloud”). Not too much technical information is covered. It is aimed at citizens and police and fire staff, not meteorologists. You are not required to commit to being a storm spotter, but you are given contact information for reporting damage, hail, or other events. This year we expect to hear a recap of last April’s tornadoes in North County . Classes are scheduled for March 17 and March 29. For details, go to http://www.stlouisskywarn.com/training_scheds.html.

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME—Celebrating 26 years of inspiration, encouragement, and biblical instruction www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com

WEBLOG

Big Cedar Lodge-A Great Family Getaway http://www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1022:february-22nd-2012&catid=58:blog&Itemid=64

A PERSONAL LETTER FROM CANDY

Dear Families,

We are sorry that we have not sent out a newsletter sooner than this. Our family is struggling right now with completing all our tasks! Sonia and I are in the thick of Conference planning. I have been working with Nick Burns to complete our video promotional, but we are having trouble securing the rights to the music for the video. Thankfully, Callie Koenig has taken over this task for me, as she is more familiar with working with companies that hold rights to music. And of course Sonia is busy with vendors, while I am trying to get speakers’ workshops, working on the Conference Brochure, performers, and 2013’s conference, as well.

Jon and I are also busy discipling families-one every three days since the Conference, and one every two days since the second week in November, while we still have nine families waiting for us to get together, which we had hoped to do in February.

I am frantically trying to get as much school in as I can before our busy season begins. The boys have already starting working, so I have very little time left with them.

We are writing another book on family businesses, which we hoped to have published by the conference, but that is looking less feasible right now as time is racing past us. Then with inflation and taxes continuing to erode our profits, the increasing expense of the conference, and a desire to diversify our business to become more profitable for our children, we are working on launching several new businesses, but one in particular that we had hoped to have up and running right now.

All this to say that Jon and I have not finished our next article in the Covenantal Family series on Honoring and Obeying Parents, so since many of you have told us how much you have missed Jon’s sermons because you were using them for your family Bible times, and also some of you were using them for your own churches, and also because you have strongly encouraged us to begin printing them again, I am printing the most recent one. At least it complements our prior teaching on Biblical Scholarship.

The reason that I discontinued placing the sermons in the newsletters is that I just cannot keep up with helping Jon write them and then adding in all the notes I take during his preaching. I am sorry, but please let this one suffice for a while. –Candy

EXODUS 10

(These are Jon’s sermon’s notes, not the finished product, as Jon will add much more during his preaching.)

I. Exodus 10:1-2 “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.’”

A.     “The ten plagues of Egypt must be inflicted, that they may be recorded for the generations to come as undeniable proofs, 1. Of God’s overruling power in the kingdom of nature, his dominion over all the creatures, and his authority to use them either as servants to his justice or sufferers by it, according to the counsel of his will. 2. Of God’s victorious power over the kingdom of Satan , to restrain the malice and chastise the insolence of his and his church’s enemies. These plagues are standing monuments of the greatness of God, the happiness of the church, and the sinfulness of sin, and standing monitors to the children of men in all ages not to provoke the Lord to jealousy nor to strive with their maker. The benefit of these instructions to the world sufficiently balances the expense.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Exodus, page 310

B.     History is His story of the works He performed throughout time. It serves as a testimony of His faithfulness to His children and as a warning of His wrath against the wicked.

For centuries, pagan nations dreaded the God of the Hebrew people because of their historical knowledge of the plagues He brought upon Egypt —the greatest empire of the world at that time. Yet how did they know of the plagues and of the God of the Hebrews, which had occurred hundreds of years prior to their own birth? God says that He preformed that they may tell their sons and grandsons that they might know that He was Lord. So we know that the pagan nations told their sons and grandsons as well, so that all the earth would know that God was Lord. And for generations to have retained this knowledge for centuries, the fathers had to be faithful to retell the story of God’s works, over and over again.

So, fathers, we must ask ourselves if we are being as faithful as these pagan fathers in passing on the stories of God’s Providence to our own children? Do our children know of the plagues, of the destruction of nations, and of God’s dreadful wrath against all those who sin against Him? Do our children know of the Lord’s loving, merciful grace to His people? Do they have a comprehensive understanding of God’s Providential history? For throughout scripture, God commands us to remember His mighty works and to tell them to our children.

1.      Psalm 135:8-13 “He smote the firstborn of Egypt , both of man and beast. He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and all his servants. He smote many nations and slew mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan . And He gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to Israel His people. Your name, O LORD, is everlasting, Your remembrance, O LORD, throughout all generations.”

2.      1 Samuel 4:8 “Woe to us! Who shall deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.”

3.      Joshua 2:9,10 “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.”

4.      Psalm 105:5,6 “Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth, O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!”

5.      Exodus 12:26,27 “And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’ And the people bowed low and worshipped.”

6.      Exodus 13:3-10 “Moses said to the people, ‘Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt , from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the LORD brought you out from this place. And nothing leavened shall be eaten. On this day in the month of Abib, you are about to go forth. It shall be when the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall observe this rite in this month. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD. Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders. You shall tell your son on that day, saying, “It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt .” And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt . Therefore, you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year.’”

7.      Deuteronomy 6:20-25 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the LORD showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt , Pharaoh and all his household; He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ So the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today. It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our God, just as He commanded us.”

8.      Psalm 78:1-7 “Listen O my people, to my instruction; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but kept His commandments.”

C.     I talk with so many fathers who tell me that they do not like to read. Yet this is not an option. As we see from scripture, it is our duty, fathers, to read so that we may know, not only of God’s mighty works in the scripture but also of His mighty works throughout history so that we may tell our children. Fathers, I recommend that you go to our Essential Reading List on our website and begin reading the marvelous works of the Lord to your children. God will hold us accountable if we fail to obey His command to remember and to tell of His Providence to our children.

D.     Rushdoony warns us that, “The loss of historical memory goes hand in hand with a loss of an awareness of consequence.” Exodus page 113

For the most part, Americans know very little history except what they themselves experience or from what they watch on television. And apart from the turmoil in the Middle East , they also know very little of the consequences of sin. Even many homeschoolers possess a distorted view of the depravity of man and the evil acts he imposes on man because of their failure to study history. And because we live in a fairly civilized country, some regard God’s judgment on the Egyptians as harsh. Yet history reveals the horrid truth of man’s depravity, as all forms of debauchery existed, in a world engulfed in idolatry. Without going into too much detail, let it just be said that idolaters prostituted themselves, cut themselves, scorched themselves, offered human sacrifices, and even their own children, to appease their idols. Even though the Greek and Roman Empire are often touted as magnificent, upon careful scrutiny, they are nothing more than cultures of immorality and bloodshed.

So we may shudder at human sacrifice, especially where children are involved, but that exists presently in our own culture with abortion on demand. And no country is truly civilized who offers human sacrifices, whether they be to gods of stone or to gods of convenience and pleasure. The only vestiges of civility that remain are due to our forefathers’ faithfulness to God and the covenants they made with Him.

Indeed, if we have eyes to see, we are sadly aware of how rapidly our culture is plunging into paganism, for the signs are evident as crime and all forms of wickedness continue to escalate. One of the most visible manifestations of paganism is displayed in the immense increase in tattoos, body piercings, and immoral dress just in the last five years.

And with these increased public demonstrations of rebellion to God comes God’s judgment through drought, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, fires…Augustine records the same increases both in Rome’s sin and in the natural disasters with which God plagued the people before Rome’s fall.

So when we think on the plagues that God wrought on Egypt , on Rome , and on America , we must not look upon them as harsh but as just punishment for sin. This is particularly important when it comes to passing on this history to our children. For we must make certain that we present God’s judgment, and subsequent destruction of the wicked, as just, holy, and necessary to our well-being.

1.      Genesis 18:25 “…shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

2.      Isaiah 30:18 “…For the LORD is a God of justice.”

3.      Psalm 96:13 “…He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.”

4.      Isaiah 9:6,7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

5.      Romans 13:3,4 “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”

6.      Psalm 9:1-20 “I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before You. For You have maintained my just cause; You have sat on the throne judging righteously. You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy has come to an end in perpetual ruins, and You have uprooted the cities; the very memory of them has perished. But the LORD abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment, and He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity. The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble; and those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion ; declare among the people His deeds. For He who requires blood remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the afflicted. Be gracious to me, O LORD; see my affliction from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may tell of all Your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation. The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made; in the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught. The LORD has made Himself known; He has executed judgment. In the work of His own hands the wicked is snared. The wicked will return to Sheol, even all the nations who forget God. For the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever. Arise, O LORD, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged before You. Put them in fear, O LORD; Let the nations know that they are but men.”

E.      So are you faithfully reading both the Old and New Testaments to your children? Have you passed on to them the consequences of your own sins and of God’s miraculous deliverance of your soul from death? Furthermore, have you told your children of the miraculous events wrought by our merciful God in His deliverance of our own country from Britain ’s mighty army?

When Great Britain imposed the Port Act on Boston’s harbor, William Prescott of Pepperell, Massachusetts called upon his fellow colonists to remember the sacrifice their forefathers made and warned them of the memories their posterity would hold of them if they failed to faithfully execute their duty to resist the tyranny that endeavored to squelch the liberty that they possessed through Christ.

1.      “William Prescott…reflected the thinking of those colonists who favored independence: ‘We think, if we submit to these regulations, all is gone. Our forefathers passed the vast Atlantic spent their blood and treasure that they might enjoy their liberties, both civil and religious, and transmit them to their posterity. Their children have waded through seas of difficulty, to leave us free and happy in the enjoyment of English privileges. Now, if we should give them up, can our children rise up and call us blessed. Is a glorious death in defense of our liberties better than a short infamous life, and our memories to be had in detestation to the latest posterity? Let us all be of one heart, and stand fast in the liberties wherewith Christ hath made us free; and may he of his infinite mercy grant us deliverance out of all our troubles.’” Page 187,188 One Nation Under God by Dr. David C. Gibbs, Jr. and Jerry Newcombe

2.      George Washington stated: “The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.”

F.      Like Moses, our voices should be lifted up in continual praise to God for His merciful deliverance!

1.      Revelation 15:1-8 “And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.’ After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”

II. Exodus 10:3-6 “Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to Him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They will also eat the rest of what has escaped-what is left to you from the hail-and they will eat every tree which sprouts for you out of the field. Then your houses shall be filled and the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, something which neither your father nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day that they came upon the earth until this day.”’ And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.”

A.     “Something which neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen” refers again to the history that would have been passed down to them from their fathers and grandfathers. The destruction from this army of locusts would remain among the people’s minds for years. For the locusts would cover all the land, and God adds ‘that no one will be able to see the land’ so that we would know that it was all the land. Furthermore, He makes us to understand that they will eat everything else left after the hail damage, so that even the trees will be eaten by them. The Egyptians’ destruction is nearly complete.

III. Exodus 10:7-11 “Pharaoh’s servants said to him, ‘How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?’ So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, ‘Go, serve the LORD your God! Who are the ones that are going?’ Moses said, ‘We shall go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we shall go, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.’ Then he said to them, ‘Thus may the LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Take heed, for evil is in your mind. Not so! Go now, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you desire.’ So they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.”

A.     The Egyptians knew that Egypt was destroyed. They saw the destruction wrought by the former plagues on their landscape, on their food production, on their entire economy. Famine was inevitable. And what other plagues might God bring upon them, they wondered. So those who served Pharaoh begged him to let who go?

Interestingly, even though they knew Egypt was destroyed, even they were not willing to completely submit to God’s Word to let all of the Israelites go. And thus they said, ‘Let the men go.’ And hence, Pharaoh asked, who was going. So Moses faithfully rendered the whole command to Pharaoh, delineating that young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and herds shall go. But Pharaoh was still unwilling to let God’s people completely slip out of his hands. Thus he would only allow the men to go, for they would surely come back to their wives, children, and herds.

Truly God’s people had become a heavy stone around the Egyptians’ necks, yet just as Satan is loathe to allow any to slip from his chains, Pharaoh refused to let all of them depart for fear of losing them completely.

It could truly be said that Pharaoh hated God. Yet mark that God says that all who hate Him love death.

1.      Zechariah 12:3 “It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.”

2.      Proverbs 8:36 “But he who sins against me injures himself; all those who hate Me love death.”

B.     God’s commandments are unalterable-set in stone, so to speak-the stone tablets of the Law, which He summed up in the greatest commandment.

1.      Deuteronomy 6:4-7 “Hear, O Israel ! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”

2.      Matthew 22:36,37 “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

C.     Satan desires to wrest everything from God, as we saw in the beginning, when his magicians attempted to alter God’s physical creation through turning the Nile into blood and calling frogs upon the land. So he certainly has no intention of losing his control over the families and their private property.

Even today, Satan attempts to gain sovereign control over family, private property, and God as we can see from the Communist Manifesto:

1.      “Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.”

2.      “A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.”

3.      “Abolition of all rights of inheritance.”

4.      “Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.”

5.      “Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.”

6.      “Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.”

7.      “Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.”

8.      “Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.”

9.      “Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.”

10.  “Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c.”

11.  “When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character. Political power, properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another. If the proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organize itself as a class, if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class.”

12.  “In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”

D.     Even our own American history was looked upon as a contest between Satan and God.

1.      “One Massachusetts clergyman, Abraham Keteltas, declared in 1777: ‘The most precious remains of civil liberty the world can now boast of, are lodged in our hands…(This war is) the cause of truth, against error and falsehood…the cause of pure and undefiled religion, against bigotry, superstition, and human inventions…In short, it is the cause of heaven against hell-of the kind Parent of the universe against the prince of darkness, and the destroyer of the human race.’” One Nation Under God by David Gibbs Jr. page 202,203

E.      Reverend Joseph Sewall was “always ready to look for underlying causes and strongly attached to his province. Sewall readily supported the patriot cause and permitted his meetinghouse to become a shrine of the American cause. In Charles Chauncy’s words, Sewall ‘was a strenuous asserter of our civil and ecclesiastical charter-rights and privileges…He knew they were the purchase of our forefathers at the expense of much labor, blood, and treasure. He could not bear the thought of their being wrested out of our hands. He esteemed it our duty, in all wise, reasonable, and legal ways to endeavor the preservation of them…’” And so in a fast-day sermon preached before Massachusetts governor, the council, and the house of representatives on December 3, 1740 entitled Nineveh’s Repentance and Deliverance, he expressed: “Let us then be sensible of the destroying evil of sin, and the necessity of true repentance. God speaks to us this day as to his people of old, ‘Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy Backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou has forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, Jeremiah 2:19…’ Let us all be exhorted to turn, every one from his evil way, and to engage heartily in the necessary work of reformation. This is our great duty and interest this day, as we would hope to be made instruments in God’s hand of saving our selves and this people. Let us then seriously consider that we have to do with that God who is able to save and to destroy. And settle that word in our hearts as a certain truth. ‘When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? And when he hideth his Face, who then can behold him? Whether it be done against a Nation, or against a man only.’ Job 34:19. And accordingly, let us turn from all sin to the LORD, and in this way hope and wait for his salvation…May our ascended Jesus, who has received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost pour out his great blessing upon the whole land and fulfill that word, ‘Then will I sprinkle clean Water upon you, and ye shall be clean; for all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.’ Ezekiel 35:25-28. Blessed be the Lord, his spirit has been, we hope, moving on the hearts of many to convince and awaken them. O let us not resist and quench the Spirit! Lest the threatening denounced against the sinners of the old world, should be fulfilled on us… And surely, if we duely consider the state of this sinful, distressed people, we shall be constrained to say with the prophet, ‘It is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.’ Hosea 10:12 And then our fervent prayers, let us unite our best endeavours with regard to our selves, our families, and this people, that all iniquity may be put far from us, and that we may become zealous of good works. In this way, we might hope God would say of us as of the remnant of Judah; ‘Then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent me of the evil I have done unto you…’ My fathers! Suffer the word of exhortation: Let God see your works; that you turn from every evil way; that God may also repent of the evil and not bring it upon us. For how dreadful must it be if the example of the nobles and men of Nineveh should rise up in judgment against any of you: they repented at the preaching ‘of one Prophet sent to them by God, you have Moses and the Prophets’; Yea in these last days God has spoken to us by his son that prince of the prophets, who is God manifest in the flesh. You have the sacred writings of the New Testament, in which God reveals his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; and also his grace and mercy to the penitent by a redeemer. And as the judge of all the earth hath advanced you to rule over his people; so he declareth to you in his word, ‘That they who rule over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God’; and requireth you to lead in the work of reformation by your example and by the right use of that power with which he hath betrusted you…As God has exalted you above your brethren, let your light shine before them, that others seeing your good works may glorify your heavenly Father, and be excited to follow you. Let all that behold you, see your pious regards to God’s worship and ordinances, his day and hours. Do your utmost that the worship of God may be maintained in the power and purity of it, among this people. Let all due care be taken that men may fear this glorious and fearful name…and not presume to take it in vain. Let the Lord’s day be strictly observed; for God hath set the Sabbath as a sign between him and his people, that he is the Lord who sanctifieth them. Let the most effectual means also be used that the great abuse of taverns may be reformed; that these be not converted into tipling and gaming houses for town-dwellers, to the dishonour of God and hurt of the common-wealth. Let the fountains of justice be kept open and pure, that judgment may run down as waters, and that such as thirst after righteousness may come freely, and be refreshed. And whereas the present difficulties which embarrass our affairs, do very much arise from the want of a suitable medium of trade, and different apprehensions in the legislature about supplying the treasury, whereby the publick debts are, in part at least, left unpaid, and the country naked and defenseless, in this day of calamity and war: I can’t but humbly apprehend, that this awful frown of Providence calls aloud to you further to consider, whether there has not been great injustice and oppression with relation to the bills of publick credit which have passed among us, from their sinking and uncertain value; and to use your best endeavours that whatever bills shall pass for time to come in lieu of money, may be a just medium of exchange; for a false balance is abomination to the Lord; but a just weight in his delight. Proverbs 11:1 Whatever methods may be proposed to extricate us out of our present distress, justice and equity must be laid in the foundation, or we may expect that the Lord who loves righteousness and hates wickedness, will confound our devices, and bring them to nought…May that God before whom all things are open and naked, direct Your Excellency and the whole court, into such paths of righteousness as shall lead to our deliverance and safety…” Political Sermons of the Founding Era 1730-1805 edited by Ellis Sandoz pages 26, 44-50

F.      Our forefathers warn us of the importance of studying scripture to understand God’s principles of government and exhorts us to stand firmly upon these principles of liberty.

1.      In response to the British Parliament’s proposal to impose their state religion on the Colonists, making the Church of England America’s State Church, Reverend Jonathan Mayhew stated in his sermon particularly selected to oppose this tyranny, “It is hoped that but few will think the subject of (freedom) an improper one to be discoursed on in the pulpit, under a notion that this is preaching politics, instead of Christ. However, to remove all prejudices of this sort, I beg it may be remembered that ‘all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’ Why, then, should not those parts of Scripture which relate to civil government be examined and explained from the desk, as well as others?...Civil tyranny is usually small in its beginning, like ‘the drop of a bucket,’ till at length, like a mighty torrent, or the raging waves of the sea, it bears down all before it, and deluges whole countries and empires.” He concluded: “It is evident that the affairs of civil government may properly fall under a moral and religious consideration…For, although there be a sense, and very plain and important sense, in which Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, his inspired apostles have, nevertheless, laid down some general principles concerning the office of civil rulers, and the duty of subjects, together with the reason and obligation of that duty…It is proper for all who acknowledge the authority of Jesus Christ, and the inspiration of his apostles, to endeavor to understand what is in fact the doctrine which they have delivered concerning this matter.” From One Nation Under God page 206, 207

G.     Now let us return to Pharaoh’s response to Moses, “Thus may the LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Take heed, for evil is in your mind. Not so! Go now, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you desire.” So they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

Pharaoh’s vehement prohibition of allowing the children to leave his control and Moses’ subsequent refusal to allow the Israelites’ children to remain in Egypt reveals the antithesis that exists even today—the question of who controls the children. God made that point quite clear here. God’s people absolutely cannot leave their children in the world—which Egypt represents. God shares His sovereign control with no one and thus separates His people from the world. Therefore, as Christians we must separate our children from the world.

Parents cannot expect their children to enter the Promised Land if they leave them behind in Egypt , which is at enmity with God.

H.     To leave children in Egypt also implies allowing children to have their own way, which is in direct opposition to God’s command to parents to train their children in the ways of the Lord. How many parents do you know who allow their children to listen to ungodly music, see ungodly movies, associate with ungodly children yet desire for them to follow the Lord? How many dislike their children’s attitudes but refrain from removing them from their church’s youth group from fear of losing their children because of their decision, when they should instead be in fear over losing their children’s souls?

Let us refrain from being proud, but instead humbly praise God for drawing us to this understanding, or we would be where so many others are now. But with this understanding, let us share this revelation that God has graciously bestowed on us.

1.      Genesis 18:19 “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”

2.      Deuteronomy 6:6,7 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”

3.      Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go.”

4.      Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

5.      Colossians 3:20 “Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.”

IV. Exodus 10:12-15 “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt and eat every plant of the land, even all that the hail has left.’ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt , and the LORD directed an east wind on the land all that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt ; they were very numerous. There had never been so many locusts, nor would there be so many again. For they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Thus nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field through all the land of Egypt .”

A.     Although God is slow to anger, his judgment is swift and complete; therefore, let us fear the Lord’s wrath if we remain obstinate in leaving our own sin.

1.      Malachi 3:5 “‘Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

2.      Psalm 105:34,35 “He spoke, and locusts came, and young locusts, even without number, and ate up all vegetation in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground.”

3.      Joel 2:11 “The LORD utters His voice before His army; surely His camp is very great, for strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it?”

V. Exodus 10:16-23 “Then Pharaoh hurriedly called for Moses and Aaron, and he said, ‘I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and make supplication to the LORD your God, that He would only remove this death from me.’ He went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to the LORD. So the LORD shifted the wind to a very strong west wind, which took up the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea; not one locust was left in all the territory of Egypt . But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not let the sons of Israel go. Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that here may be darkness over the land of Egypt , even a darkness which may be felt.’ So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.”

A.     What a dreadful judgment to be engulfed in complete darkness, yet that is where all of us are before God sheds His light into our hearts. Indeed Satan keeps all in bondage, blinded to the Word of Truth and the Light of His countenance until God releases them from bondage. Yet this clearly shows that man is culpable, and will continue to choose darkness over light, and sin over obedience, until God brings him out of bondage and opens his eyes.

1.      John 3:19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

2.      Isaiah 59:9,10 “Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, but behold, darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men, we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at midday as in the twilight, among those who are vigorous we are like dead men.”

3.      Isaiah 59:12-14 “For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities. Transgressing and denying the LORD, and turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter.”

4.      Job 18:5,6 “Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out, and the flame of his fire gives no light. The light in his tent is darkened, and his lamp goes out above him.”

5.      1 Samuel 2:9,10 “He keeps the feet of His godly ones, but the wicked ones are silenced in darkness; for not by might shall a man prevail. Those who contend with the LORD will be shattered; against them He will thunder in the heavens, the LORD will judge the ends of the earth; and He will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed.”

6.      John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being, through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

7.      Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.”

8.      John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.’”

B.     God is already loosening ‘the Bands of Wickedness, to undo the heavy Burdens, and to let the oppressed go free.’ How poignant a contrast God makes between those in the world and those whom He delivers from their bondage. For God has now shed forth His light upon His children and is ready to raise up their foundations and repair the breach between them and Him. How thankful we should be for such particular favor!

1.      Proverbs 3:33 “The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous.”

2.      Isaiah 58:6-12 “Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”

VI. Exodus 10:24-26 “Then Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, ‘Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Even your little ones may go with you.’ But Moses said, ‘You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the LORD our God. Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us, not a hoof shall be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the LORD our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve the LORD.’”

A.     Time and time again, Pharaoh pressured Moses to compromise the Word of God, but unlike those who go along to get along, Moses remained firmly committed to the entirety of God’s Word because he knew that God’s terms were not negotiable.

Satan continues to pressure man to compromise the Word of God by mollifying the conscience to find middle ground, which he finds acceptable to both parties. Yet the Word is the standard by which we are to order our lives. Our duty is to do nothing more and nothing less.

Puritan Henry Smith says, “We should set the Word of God always before us, like a rule, and believe nothing but that which it teacheth, love nothing but that which it prescribeth, hate nothing but that which it forbiddeth, do nothing but that which it commandeth.”

Let us look to our predecessors who stood firmly by the standard of old and study the Word of God so that we may prevent Satan from leading us astray.

1.      Jeremiah 6:16 “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls…”

2.      2 Timothy 3:14-17 “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

3.      Psalm 19:7,9,10 “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul… the statutes of the Law are pure and righteous altogether, more to be desired are they than gold even much fine gold.”

4.      Psalm 119:46-48 “I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.”

5.      2 Peter 3:17 “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.”

6.      2 Corinthians 2:11 “In order that Satan might not outwit us, for we are not unaware of his schemes.”

7.      Ephesians 6:10-17 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breast plate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

8.      Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

B.     The King James Version says: ‘There shall not a hoof be left behind; for of them must we take to serve the LORD our God.’ All we possess belongs to the Lord and therefore must be used to worship Him. Our clothing, our homes, our decorations, our animals—all are under God’s dominion to be used for His glory, and subsequently, for our enjoyment! They don’t belong to the State!

1.      Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the LORD’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.”

2.      Psalm 104:24 “O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all, the earth is full of Your possessions.”

3.      Psalm 50:10 “For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.”

4.      1 Samuel 2:7 “The LORD makes poor and rich…”

5.      Deuteronomy 8:18 “You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

6.      Malachi 3:8-12 “‘Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, “How have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

7.      Ecclesiastes 5:18,19 “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting; to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for it is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in this labor; this is the gift of God.”

8.      Psalm 8:6 “You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.”

9.      Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

C.     God is Holy. Holy means “whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense. Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Perfectly just and good.”

1.      Isaiah 43:3 “For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel , your Savior…”

2.      Isaiah 5:16 “The LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.”

3.      Psalm 99:9 “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His holy hill, for holy is the LORD our God.”

4.      Revelation 15:4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before You, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

D.     Man, on the other hand, is wicked.

1.      Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

2.      Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

3.      Romans 3:10-18 “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

E.      Yet God commands us to be holy as He is holy.

1.      Leviticus 19:2 “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.’”

2.      Leviticus 20:7,26 “You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.… Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.”

3.      Exodus 19:6 “‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel .”

4.      Deuteronomy 18:13 “You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.”

5.      Ephesians 1:4 “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”

6.      1 Peter 1:15,16 “But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”

7.      1 Thessalonians 4:7 “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.”

F.      So how can man be holy when his heart is deceitful above all else?

We can see from the last scripture, that ‘God has called us in sanctification.’ What does this mean? Sanctification means “the act of making holy. In an evangelical sense, the act of God’s grace by which the affections of men are purified or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love to God.” To sanctify means “to separate, set apart or appoint to a holy, sacred or religious uses. To purify; to prepare for divine service, and for partaking of holy things. To cleanse from corruption; to purify from sin. To make holy by detaching the affections from the world and its defilements, and exalting them to a supreme love of God.” Now let us go back to the meaning of holy, to see that it also means “consecrated or set apart for a holy use or to the service or worship of God. Such as a holy nation or a holy priesthood.”

1.      2 Thessalonians 2:13,14 “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

2.      Exodus 19:6 “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…”

3.      1 Peter 2:9 “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

G.     ‘Of Him who called you out.’ God is calling His people out and setting them apart from the world, thus the three days’ journey. Of course this points to Christ’s three days in the earth before His triumphant resurrection and victory over death.

In the final analysis, God is taking back what rightfully belongs to Him. He is reconciling those of His who are in the world ( Egypt ) to Himself. But the only way to reconcile unholy man to a Holy God is through the shedding of blood. Thus for their worship to be acceptable to their Holy God, the Israelites must first be reconciled to Him through the atonement made by sacrifices, which also points to Christ as the sacrificial Lamb. In essence they would not be able to make their sacrifices without their herds.

1.      Habakkuk 1:13 “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor…”

2.      Genesis 3:21 “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”

a. As we have previously noted, God had to shed blood to cover Adam and Eve’s sins.

3.      Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.”

4.      Colossians 1:19,20 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

5.      Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

6.      Hebrews 9:11-22 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.’ And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

7.      Romans 5:6-11 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

8.      2 Corinthians 5:19 “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

9.      Colossians 2:8-15 “See to it that no one [Pharaoh or in other words, Satan’s vessels] takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism [which the people passing through the Red Sea signifies], in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When You were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

H.     Unlike Pharaoh (Satan), who does not mind if the Israelites worship God just as long as they stay within his domain, God will not share His sovereignty with anyone. For whom God delivers, He delivers completely, for none remain under any portion of Satan’s dominion. All will be brought under God’s complete dominion.

1.      Matthew 12:29 “Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.”

2.      Hebrews 2:10-15 “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ‘I will proclaim Your name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.’ And again, ‘I will put My trust in Him.’ And again, ‘Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.’ Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

I.        God was one God, and He would not share that sovereignty with another. Indeed the Israelites had to be shown this as they continued to worship the Egyptians gods along with the One True God. Their worship was a mixed bag of tricks—a little of this god, a little of that god, and some of the God of their fathers. Thus God destroyed every god of the Egyptians through the plagues to show them that He was the One and Only. Thus they must leave Egypt with everything—with their heart, soul, mind, and with all their possessions that they would use to worship Him. Indeed, the whole of life rests on fulfillment of this commandment.

1.      Matthew 22:36,37 “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

J.       For “the defection of Israel did not consist in rejecting Jehovah as a false god, or in renouncing the law of Moses as a false religion; but in joining foreign worship and idolatrous ceremonies to the ritual of the true God.” The Roots of the Republic page 84

Reverend E. C. Wines in The Roots of the American Republic page 3-5 states: “The First and most essential of these fundamental principles was the unity of God…When Moses made his appearance in the world, idolatry had crept in on every side. It was firmly established in all nations...It had become the common sentiment and common practice of mankind. It had gained the credit of a settled truth, and the authority of an undoubted principle of common sense. There was not a civil constitution then in being, which was not based upon the assumed truth of polytheism. The Israelites themselves had become so infected with it, that all the miracles wrought for their deliverance were not sufficient to cure their superstition and keep them steadfast to the worship of the True God.”

“A civil constitution, inseparably interwoven with the worship of the one living God, was, as far as we can judge, an indispensable agency in enabling, perhaps I ought rather to say, in compelling the Hebrews to answer their high destination…by this means, it would happen, that religion and the political existence of the people must be annihilated together. Whatever reason therefore, there was for desiring the overthrow of idolatry, there was the same reason for incorporating the idea of the divine unity into the political structure of the Hebrew commonwealth.”

“Thus Moses made the worship of the one only God the fundamental law of his civil institutions. This law was to remain forever unalterable through all the changes, which lapse of time might introduce into his constitution. Thus was the Jewish lawgiver enabled to secure a result of indispensible necessity to human virtue and happiness; a result, which as far as we can see, could have been attained in no other way.”

“The political prohibition of idolatry, under the sanction of civil punishment, was not…founded on the doctrine of the true God, considered as a theological dogma, but on the principle that Jehovah, having delivered the Israelites from slavery, and made them a nation, was, by their own free choice, constituted civil head of their commonwealth. He was, therefore, to be honored as their king, as well as their God…words spoken against the divine King of Israel were considered as compassing, that is, designing and aiming at the overthrow of the government. They were an overt act of treason, which was punished capitally.”

Pages 97-99 “The whole scope and hinge of the Hebrew polity was the overthrow of idolatry…to have imposed the penalty of death upon the worship of false gods can no longer appear in the light of inquisitorial tyranny…the worship which He demands, before all and above all, is the acknowledgment of our absolute dependence and of his supreme dominion; gratitude for his benefits; trust in his mercy; reverence for his authority; love towards his excellence; and submission to his law.”

“What purity and beauty in the moral doctrines of this code! Equity, probity, fidelity, industry, compassion, charity, beneficence—in a word, everything that makes men respectable in their own eyes, everything that can endear them to their fellows, everything that can assure the repose and happiness of society—are placed among the number of human duties.”

“Where else in all antiquity, are to be found ideas of God and his worship, so just and sublime; religious institutions, so pure and spiritual; ethical doctrines, so conformable to the sentiments of nature and the light of reason? Recall the picture, presented in a former part of this chapter of the religious moral condition of the ancient world. What false and grotesque notions of the divine nature! What extravagant impure, and cruel rites…Here chastity is sacrificed in the temples. There, human blood flows upon the altars…humanity brutalized…people plunged into a frightful ignorance…All the pagan nations had for their guide only the feeble and tremulous light of human reason. Among the Hebrews, a higher, even the pure and eternal reason, had pierced the darkness, scattered its shades, and poured a divine illumination into the mind of prophet, priest, lawgiver, judge, and king. Thus was the intellect of the nation enlightened, and its heart purified. Thus were its manners humanized; its morals elevated; its institutions liberalized. Thus was the nation educated for its great mission of guidance and of blessing to all the nations of the earth, in all the periods of their history.”

Page 76 “To preserve the doctrine of the unity, in the midst of a polytheistic world, was the fundamental design of the Mosaic polity.”

Thus we see the reason for not mixing fabrics and seeds, nor grafting trees into another. It is all to keep the Israelites from being infected with the perversions practiced by idolaters. For God requires a complete separation from the world and sin. We cannot serve two masters, nor can we have friendship with world if we desire communion with God.

1.      Exodus 19:4-6 “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if ye will hear my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”

2.      Deuteronomy 29:10,12-13,16-18 “Ye stand this day,” [says Moses in an address to his countrymen] “your captains of your tribes, your elders and your officers, and all the men of Israel… that ye should enter into covenant with Jehovah thy God, and into his oath that he maketh with thee this day, that he may establish thee this day for a people unto himself … (for ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the nations that ye passed by, and ye have seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away from Jehovah our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations.”

3.      Exodus 20:1-3 “And God spake all these words saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt , out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

4.      Deuteronomy 6:1-3 “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: that thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy sons, and thy sons’ sons, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel and observe to do it: that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.”

5.      Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

6.      1 Kings 18:21 “Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’”

7.      Joshua 24:14-28 “‘Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt , and serve the LORD. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.’ The people answered and said, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; for the LORD our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. The LORD drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the LORD, for He is our God.’ Then Joshua said to the people, ‘You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.’ The people said to Joshua, ‘No, but we will serve the LORD.’ Joshua said to the people, ‘You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the LORD, to serve Him.’ And they said, ‘We are witnesses.’ ‘Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.’ The people said to Joshua, ‘We will serve the LORD our God and will obey His voice.’ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. Joshua said to all the people, ‘Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which He spoke to us; thus it shall be for a witness against you, that you do not deny your God.’ Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.”

8.      James 4:4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

9.      2 Corinthians 6:14-18 “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

K.    This truth, in fact, is presented in God’s first commandment. The first two verses of this commandment are called the Shema Israel, the morning and evening prayer of Israel , because they contain the essence of the Decalogue.

1.      Deuteronomy 6:4,5 “Hear, O Israel ! The LORD our God is one LORD! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

L.      That is why God over and over again warns His people to do all He commands, for He will have complete sovereignty over them. In fact, He tells them that complete submission is the only way to possess the land which He swore to their fathers. The land of promise—that of salvation.

1.      Deuteronomy 4:1,1 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I commanded you.”

2.      Deuteronomy 8:1 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers.”

3.      Deuteronomy 28:1,2 “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God.”

4.      Deuteronomy 28:58,63,68 “If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God…It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. The LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

5.      Psalm 95:1-11 “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God and a great King above all gods, in whose hand are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah. As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me. They tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways. Therefore, I swore in My anger, truly they shall not enter into My rest.”

6.      Hebrews 3:1-11 “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with their generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know My ways”; as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter My rest.’”

7.      Hebrews 4:1-16 “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, ‘As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,’ although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’; and again in this passage, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

M.   It was the duty of all nations to obey the Law of God.

1.      Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”

N.    Rushdoony in The Biblical Institutes states on page 20: “The alternative to law is not grace; it is lawlessness…A second principle of the Shema Israel: one absolute, unchanging God means one absolute, unchanging law…to speak of the law as for Israel; but not for Christians is not only to abandon the law but also to abandon the God of the law….One God one law, requires one total, unchanging, and unqualified obedience.”

Page 4,5 “Law is in every culture religious in origin. Because law governs man and society, because it establishes and declares the meaning of justice and righteousness, law is inescapably religious, in that it establishes in practical fashion the ultimate concerns of a culture. Second, it must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society. If law has its source in man’s reason then reason is the god of that society. Third, in any society, any change of law is an explicit or implicit change of religion…Fourth… foundation of law are inescapably religious, no society exists without a religious foundation or without a law-system which codifies the morality of its religion. Fifth, there can be no tolerance in a law-system for another religion. Toleration is a device used to introduce a new law-system as a prelude to a new intolerance. Every law-system must maintain its existence by hostility to every other law-system and to alien religious foundations or else it commits suicide.”

It is evident that America has entered into a new law-system and into a new intolerance, as the State’s schools tolerate all religions, but Christianity. Even many churches are intolerant of those who desire to adhere to all of God’s Word. For many of our own homeschooling families have been asked to leave their churches. Why? For the same reason that Cain killed Abel—because his deeds were righteous. The Lord is a rock of offense because it exposes man’s sinfulness.

1.      Genesis 4:8 “…And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”

2.      1 John 3:12 “Not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.”

3.      Genesis 46:34 “You shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ that you may live in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians.”

4.      Isaiah 28:16-18 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level; then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters will overflow the secret place. Your covenant with death will be canceled, and your pact with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, then you become its trampling place.”

5.      Isaiah 8:14,15 “Then He shall become a sanctuary; but to both the houses of Israel , a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem . Many will stumble over them, then they will fall and be broken; they will even be snared and caught.”

6.      Matthew 21:33-46 “‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son to them saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.” They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those wine-growers?’ They said to Him, ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Did you never read in the Scriptures, “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the LORD, and it is marvelous in our eyes”? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.’ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that he was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.”

7.      Romans 9:33 “Just as it is written, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and He who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

8.      Psalm 118:22,23 “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

9.      John 15:18-25 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’”

10.  John 17:14-21 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do no ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

11.  1 Peter 2:4-10 “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, ‘The Stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,’ and, ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense’; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of GOD; you have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

VII. Exodus 10:27-29 “But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, ‘Get away from me! Beware, do not see my face again, for in the day you see my face you shall die!’ Moses said, ‘You are right; I shall never see your face again!’”

A.     Earlier verse 6 says, “He turned and went out from Pharaoh.” Now Moses turned from Pharaoh, for there was no longer a sacrifice for sin. Even Christ did not run after anyone and in turn directed His disciples to ‘shake off the dust of their feet for a testimony against them.’ It is a fearful thing when God has had enough, as He did with Saul.

1.      Luke 9:5 “And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

2.      1 Samuel 15:24-28 “Then Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the LORD.’ But Samuel said to Saul, ‘I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel .’ As Samuel turned to go, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him, ‘The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.’”

B.     Although we readily saw Pharaoh’s heart in his repeated failures to repent, he finally expresses his intentions quite clearly when he commanded Moses to depart and never return. It is a fearful thing to provoke God after repeated offerings have been made for penitence. We cannot just say that we are sorry and then continue in our sin; we must turn from our sin, completely turn away from our wickedness and back to God, or He will not forgive us.

1.      Ezekiel 14:6 “…Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.”

2.      Isaiah 55:6,7 “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

3.      Micah 6:8,9 “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? The voice of the LORD will call to the city—and it is sound wisdom to fear Your name: ‘Hear, O tribe. Who has appointed its time?’”

4.      Isaiah 59:1,2 “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”

5.      Jeremiah 2:19 “‘Your own wickedness will correct you, and your apostasies will reprove you; know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God, and the dread of Me is not in you,’ declares the Lord GOD of hosts.”

6.      2 Chronicles 36:16 “They continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, until there was no remedy.”

7.      Isaiah 22:12-14 “Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, to shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.’ But the LORD of hosts revealed Himself to me, ‘Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die,’ says the Lord GOD of hosts.”

C.     Pharaoh’s obstinate, unrepentant heart represents the hearts of all unregenerate men. So let us for a moment contrast Pharaoh’s behavior with what God requires of us. God requires nothing less than a humbling of our hearts under His mighty Hand—a broken and contrite heart, which expresses itself in godly sorrow of mourning for sin and a crying out in prayer for forgiveness.

1.      Joel 2:12,13 “‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.’ Now return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil.”

2.      Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

3.      2 Corinthians 7:10 “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

4.      Psalm 130:1-5 “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope.”

D.     Finally, let us look at how the nation of Nineveh repented in response to Jonah’s command for penitence.

1.      Jeremiah 18:7,8 “At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.”

2.      Jonah 1:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

3.      Jonah 3:4-10 “Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh , he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.’ When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”

4.      Ezekiel 33:14,15 “But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.”

5.      Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

6.      Psalm 46:1,5 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.”

E.      Just as Moses represented Christ as our deliverer from bondage, so did Jonah. And just as God commanded the Hebrews to go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, Jonah’s three nights in the belly of the whale represents Christ’s three nights in the heart of the deep. Thus as Jonah delivers Nineveh from bondage, so, too, Christ delivers us out of our bondage and places a new heart within us to obey Him.

1.      Exodus 3:18 “They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’”

2.      Matthew 12:38-41 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’ But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.’”

3.      Ezekiel 36:25-28 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

Jon and Candy Summers share:

Christian Home Educators Fellowship—Faithfully honoring God and serving the homeschooling community for the past 28 years! www.chef-missouri.com

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME FEBRUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER

I. CHEF Information and Activities
    1. Our Thanks
    2. CHEF 28th Annual 2012 Graduation Meetings, February 9, March 8, and April 12
    3. CHEF Meetings and English/Scottish Country Dance Practices, February 10, 24; March 9, 30; April 13, 27
    4. CHEF 18th Annual Art Festival and Photography Contest, February 7
    5. CHEF Annual Paintball Game, February 18
    6. CHEF 14th Annual Heart to Heart Mother and Daughter Tea, March 15
    7. CHEF 2012 Conference, June 18-19
Douglas Bond’s Workshops
Review of Douglas Bond’s New Book, The Mighty Weakness of John Knox
    8. Special Opportunities-Special Discount to CHEF Families for Generations with Vision 3rd Annual Family Economics Conference March 8-10, Chicago , IL

II. There’s No Place Like Home Articles
     1. Weblog: Blooming Teas and Valentine Cards
     2. In the Library-All Loves Excelling Makes a Great Valentine’s Gift
     3. Biblical Conversations Part II-Preserving the Heart of Home by Gathering at Our Table over Delicious Meals and Deep Conversations
     4. Signature Touches for the Dining Room
     5. Come Gather at Our Table-If Angels Could Eat, It Wouldn’t Be Angel Food Cake
     6. Economy-Early Training for Future Roles by Playing House and Helping Mommy
     7. Multi-Generational Family Business-Toasting Martinelli for Preserving Their Family Legacy
     8. In the Garden-David Austin’s Handbook of Roses
     9. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made-Ordering Recipe File

For those of you who are new to our email mailing list, you may read recent email newsletters on the website at www.chef-missouri.com (click on TNPLH Newsletter) or www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/.

CHEF INFORMATION AND ACTIVITIES

Our Thanks

Our family would like to thank the Tornatore family for always helping to make our ice skating party an enjoyable evening. We thank them for their coffee urns for our hot chocolate, for bringing coffee as well, and for helping to set up and break down.

Our thanks to the Head family for providing the cups for our Christmas Ball each year.

CHEF 28th Annual 2012 Graduation To receive your graduation packet, please call Sonia Summers at 314-521-8487 and leave your name, graduate’s name, phone number, and email address.

Meetings: The graduation meetings will be held at Dorsett Village Baptist Church , 2240 Bennington , Maryland Heights MO 63043, located just off Hwy. 270 near Hwy. 70 from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month: February 9, March 8, and April 12.

Directions: Take Hwy. 270 to Dorsett. Go west to McKelvey. Make a right on to McKelvey. At the first stoplight the street name changes to Bennington . Go through the stoplight to the first parking lot past Radiant Faith Academy Daycare’s (formerly Kinder Care) playground. Make a right into the parking lot. We will meet in the sanctuary for the first meeting and then in one of the lower level rooms of the main building for all meetings thereafter.


PLEASE NOTE: David Klarich is rescheduled for Friday, February 10.

$65 per Family is a one-time fee for all the dance practices.

CHEF Meetings and English/Scottish Country Dance Practices called by Jeremy Suerman with Volleyball, Basketball and Great Fellowship at Dorsett Village Baptist Church, 2240 Bennington, Maryland Heights MO 63043 on Fridays 7:00 p.m.-Midnight on February 10, 24; March 9, 30; April 13, 27. Meetings are free. Dances: Registration cost at the door is $65 per family or $5 per dancer per class. You do not have to pay for family members who just come to watch. Dancers ages five and under are free.

On Friday, February 10, David Klarich will be our speaker from 7:00-8:15 p.m., dance 8:30-10:30 p.m., and basketball or volleyball 10:30-11:45 p.m.

We are honored to have CHEF’s attorney and lobbyist (and past Missouri senator and representative) David Klarich speak to us. This will be a great government lesson for all of us, but it will be especially important for our children. For those families who come to our dance practices from Illinois , we assure you that the information presented will also greatly benefit you, as well. Some of the topics to be covered: How a bill becomes law, issues relating to homeschooling, the difference between disciplining and child abuse, what the “authorities” can and cannot do, and answers to your questions.

We also want to emphasize the importance of showing your gratitude to David for his service in the Missouri House of Representatives and the Senate and for all the many years he has served our CHEF families for free. I know of no other state that has been blessed with such a tremendous service! Please make every effort to thank David for his sacrificial service.

Mr. Klarich is a homeschooling father of five and serves as CHEF’s attorney and lobbyist. David John Klarich was elected to the Missouri Senate (1994-2002) where he served as the Chairman of Judiciary; Chairman of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules; Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions & Ethics; and member of Judicial Resources; Ways and Means; Pensions and General Laws; and Local Government and Economic Development. He was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives (1990-1994).

Mr. Klarich drafted, sponsored, and passed legislation relating to virtually all subjects. Included among his legislative accomplishments are the creation of the Child Custody, Abuse and Neglect Commission; created and/or protected the Uncompensated Tort Victims fund, Crime Victims Fund, and Unemployment Compensation Fund; passed a law that prohibits frivolous lawsuits by making inmates pay for their own legal fees; created a state program to put “at-risk” youth to work instead of turning to crime; created the first expedited capital crimes procedure; banned the death penalty for the mentally retarded; drafted and passed the first Violent Sexual Predators law, the Predator Registry, and Predator Civil Commitment procedure; defined and defended marriage; drafted and co-sponsored the “Safe Schools Act”; drafted significant civil, corporate, and judicial reform legislation; secured additional resources for education and transportation; and reformed property tax laws.

He also worked in private law practice with the Clayton law firm of Riezman Berger, P.C. In 2002, Mr. Klarich created and now manages a company known as Citizens for Policy Reform, LLC which provides government relations services before the United States Congress, Missouri General Assembly, and administrative agencies. He holds an A.B. in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an M.A. in Public Policy, and Juris Doctor from Regent University , Virginia .

David Klarich is in Jefferson City each day of the legislative session diligently working on our behalf both for us as homeschoolers and as families. Therefore, we are deeply grateful to God for providing us with such an experienced attorney who has served as both Missouri Representative and Missouri Senator for many years. David also handles our DFS cases and has been instrumental in helping our families in past years with issues concerning admission to technical schools, universities, the armed services, and work permits.

Directions: Take Hwy. 270 to Dorsett. Go west to McKelvey. Make a right on to McKelvey. At the first stoplight the street name changes to Bennington . Go through the stoplight to the first parking lot past Radiant Faith Academy Daycare’s (formerly Kinder Care) playground. Make a right into the parking lot.

CHEF 18th Annual Art Festival and Photography Contest Tuesday, February 7 at Larimore Plantation Banquet Hall, 11475 Lilac Ave. , St. Louis , MO 63138 , less than a mile north of 270 at the Lilac Avenue exit. Viewing 6:00-7:30 p.m.; Announcement of winners 8:00 p.m.; Additional viewing, clean-up, and project retrieval 9:00 p.m.
 

CHEF Annual Paintball Game Saturday, February 18, 12:30-4:30 p.m. at Gateway Paintball Field, the same location as the last several years. $15 per person for gun, mask, air, and four hours of play—paint is extra (2000 rounds for $60) or $30 per person for gun, mask, air, four hours of play, and 500 rounds of paint is included. This is the same price as it has been for years! Arrive at noon for gear and instructions. Children must be 10 years old to play. Pay when you arrive but please call 314-521-8487 by February 15 to let Jedidiah know how many of you will be playing. This is a great father/child activity! Come and enjoy!

Directions: Gateway is located between 70, 270, and 370. From 70, take 70 to Earth City North. Go about 2 miles to St. Charles Rock Road . At the end of the road, it will curve right to the front of the sand mine. Follow the road to the right. About a half mile down the road, you will see Gateway on the left. From St. Charles Rock Road , take St. Charles Rock Road west to the end of the road. At the end of the road, it will curve right to the front of the sand mine. Follow the road to the right. About a half mile down the road, you will see Gateway on the left. www.bushwackerspaintball.net.

CHEF 14th Annual Heart to Heart Mother and Daughter Tea Thursday, March 15, 7:00-10:00 p.m. at Hawken House Barn, 1155 S. Rock Hill Road , St. Louis , MO 63119 . Cost is $10 per person (to defray cost of room rental, food, and paper goods). Please mail your check payable to CHEF, c/o Sonia Summers , 236 St. Louis Ave. , Ferguson , MO 63135 by March 12 to reserve your place or call 314-521-8487 to make a reservation. Candy’s speaking topic to be announced. Mothers without daughters are welcome to come. Come and enjoy tea and delectable pastries with other homeschooling moms.

Directions: If you take Hwy. 270 south, exit at Big Bend Road . Go east on Big Bend approximately 4 miles to S. Rock Hill Road . Go right on Rock Hill for 2 blocks. The house is just past Hawken Condominiums on the right. Barn is on right in back of Hawken House. There is no Big Bend exit if you are going north on Hwy. 270. Therefore, if you take Hwy. 270 north, go east on Hwy. 44. Exit at Big Bend Road and go east for approximately 1.5 miles to S. Rock Hill Road . Then follow above directions.



CHEF 2012 CONFERENCE
Strengthening Families Through the Word of God
“What a blessing to be around the Lord’s people. CHEF has been an encouragement to us. This is our 20th year, and I am so blessed each year we come. It is the highlight of our year of homeschooling. It helps us keep perspective and keep prioritizing where we should be.” – Columbia , MO

“I did not know people like you and your attendees existed. Oh my goodness, I have been so blessed I called my husband to thank him for allowing me to come and told him I wished he were here. Thank you for being such a tremendous blessing to me!” –Vendor

 

Douglas Bond’s Workshops

Church History Biographical lectures, with practical and devotional application to the church and our lives as Christians in a world hostile to Christ and his Gospel of grace alone. John Calvin, John Knox, John Wycliffe, Covenanters, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, William Cowper, Blaise Pascal, J.S. Bach, Isaac Watts, and a variety of hymn writers and featured hymns will serve as the controlling idea and outline for the message.

Fathers & Sons based on STAND FAST and HOLD FAST: Fatherhood defined, illustrated; blessings and challenges; unique challenges for young men in a postmodern world; what standing fast means biblically; how to stand fast in Christ in a variety of areas.

Heroism & True Greatness The importance of Heroism for today’s young people (especially young men); why every Christian needs to be a student of Church history; the forgotten Covenanters: heroes from the 17th century; Reformation heroes. The value of historical fiction in the study of history. Excerpts from Crown & Covenant Trilogy; gleanings from Bond’s research for his novel on the life of John Calvin, The Betrayal. John Knox and the Scottish Reformation. Samuel Rutherford, and others.

Writing This includes historical fiction writing, non-fiction writing, the central importance of poetry, the history, importance, and relevance of Christian hymnody for today’s Christian community; how to write hymns in Common Meter and in Long Meter, iambic and trochaic…

Review of Douglas Bond’s New Book, The Mighty Weakness of John Knox
I’m deeply grateful for how well The Mighty Weakness of John Knox has been received by many readers. George Grant who endorsed the book told me in an email that he liked the book so much he reread it after the book was released. He wrote this about it, “In the compass of this small volume, Douglas Bond somehow manages to corral all the mysterious paradoxes of John Knox: the thunderous pulpit and the closet intercessions, the soaring intellect and the humble home life, the boldness and the meekness, the might and the weakness. In other words, Bond has captured the very essence of this remarkable model for reformational ministry.” www.bondbooks.net/johnknox.htm

“One man with Christ is always a majority.” –John Knox



SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES

[This information is communicated to you only as a service to our families. The information contained herein is not screened or verified by CHEF. Please be discerning at all times.]

Special Discount to CHEF Families for Generations With Vision 3rd Annual Family Economics Conference March 8-10, Chicago , IL Are you ready to take your family’s economy to the next level? Is your family ready to start a family business, but you just don’t know where to start? Join Generations with Vision in Chicago for the third annual Family Economics Conference on March 8-10, 2012. This exciting event features a line-up of speakers who will equip your family’s economy for long-term success, including Kevin Swanson, Doug Phillips, Erik Weir, R.C. Sproul, Jr., Steve and Teri Maxwell, Alex and Cassie Michael aka “The Thrifty Couple,” Dave Tucker, and many more. In addition, you’ll be encouraged by the practical wisdom in our 7+ Q&A panels, where you will have opportunity to interact with successful, proven businessmen on a variety of topics ranging from managing money to raising young entrepreneurs.

Just a sample of the topics to be addressed are:
· Raising Sons to Provide
· Starting a Business - The First 100 Days
· Household Budget Management
· Marketing a Family Business
· Household Chores and Time Management
· Nobody Owes You a Job! A Challenge for Young Men
· A Special Proverbs 31 Track for Ladies
· ...and much more!

Also included in the price of registration is a family pass to the 2012 Annual Liberty Day Celebration on Saturday night after the conference (value of $59). You’ll enjoy a dynamic professional reenactment of the 2nd Virginia convention and Patrick Henry’s legendary “Give Me Liberty!” speech, along with many other festivities.

As a special for the readers of this email, you can save $20 off your family registration by using the coupon code CHEF when you register online. You’ll save $20 off the already low price of $279 per family for the entire weekend, including admission to the Liberty Day Celebration. Go to http://familyeconomics2012.com/ to register now!

Wendy Miller shares re 4-H Beginning and Intermediate Horsemanship Clinics: Dreamcatchers 4-H Horse Project group is offering a ten-hour course to introduce new riders to the basic techniques and theory involved in caring for, training, and riding horses. During the Beginner Course, students will have the opportunity to groom, lead and ride a horse. They will be taught basic safety in both working on the ground with their horse and when mounted. They will be introduced to theory which will cover horse anatomy, parts of tack, and basic management practices. Each session is open to students ages 8 and over. Students may continue on to enroll in our new Intermediate Clinics and work on improving their seat and control, while learning more advanced forms of ground training. Students will be enrolled in 4-H as a part of participating in the course.

Clinic times are:
April 9-13 ( Monday through Friday from 4:00-6:00 p.m.) Beginner
April 18-19 (Wednesday and Thursday from 4:00-8:00 p.m.) Intermediate
May 11-12 (Friday from 4:00-7:00 p.m. and Saturday from 9:30-4:30 p.m.) Beginner
May 21-25 (Monday through Friday from 10:00-12:00 p.m.) Beginner
June 1-2 (Friday from 5:00-8:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00-4:00 p.m.) Intermediate
June 4-8 (Monday through Friday from 10:00-12:00 p.m.) Beginner
June 25-29 (Monday through Friday from 10:00-12:00 p.m.) Beginner

Cost: $100 (20% discount for siblings or children already enrolled in 4-H). Our farm is located off Highway 30 near Cedar Hill , Missouri . For more information, please contact Wendy Miller at mailto: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 314-341-5300. You can go to the Dreamcatchers Facebook page to see pictures from last year’s clinics.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dreamcatchers-4-H-club/160103144034707

Wild Bird Rehabilitation Needs Volunteers Hello, I am a homeschool mother and receive the newsletter every month. I am also a volunteer at the Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center in Overland , MO. I was asked by the director to put the word out about our birds and to make others aware of a need we have. Every spring we have a huge influx of rescued birds. Many are babies rescued after falling out of nests or rescued from cats or dogs. Some of the birds are injured after having been hit by cars or flying into windows. We get all manner of songbirds (which are the only ones we can care for) and are usually overwhelmed with starlings. The director would like help with caring for the baby starlings, as these are very hardy birds, and we have an overpopulation of them anyway. She will make up booklet that explains how to care for a baby bird and then give the bird to homeschool families to take them home and raise them. The family can provide all the care and then release the birds when they are ready. It would be a wonderful learning experience for children, and Wild Bird Rehab will help and direct the care as needed. The director says that March is the month when our “season” of caring for the babies begins, and we are making you aware of this wonderful learning opportunity early so we can plan over the winter how to implement this. If you have any questions, please contact Carolyn Bast at 314-839-1399 or mailto: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME—Celebrating 26 years of inspiration, encouragement, and biblical instruction www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com

“We would like to thank you for all the effort you put into the newsletter. We like the way you celebrate the New Year and intend to follow your example. The article about germs was good… The article about sin was excellent. My husband read it to me, and we will read it as a family. We are greatly encouraged to continue in this battle that rages.” – Robertsville , MO

WEBLOG

Blooming Teas www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1003:blooming-teas&catid=58:blog&Itemid=64

Valentine Cards www.theresnoplacelikehome-summers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1002:valentine-cards&catid=58:blog&Itemid=64


IN THE LIBRARY

As we celebrate February 14th with Valentines and gifts for our loved ones, it is fitting to be reminded of Christ’s love for us, for greater love hath no one than Christ who laid down His life for sinners while they were still at enmity with Him. How commonplace it has become in our minds, that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, yet how singularly incomparable as described by John Bunyan: “That the eternal word, for the salvation of sinners, should come down from heaven and be made flesh, is an act of such condensation, and discovery of such love that can never be completely found out.” Yet it can become more comprehensible through studying John Bunyan’s classic treatise on Ephesians 3:18,19.

Appropriately titled, All Loves Excelling, Bunyan labors to impart a deeper understanding of God’s infinite love for His saints, so that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Oh, how glorious it is that we may concur with David’s gratefulness for our own deliverance in Psalm 86 and 40: “For great is thy mercy towards me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock, and established my going. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.”

Let us not be as Bunyan describes, “little-spirited Christians that are but in a small measure acquainted with this God, with the breadths, and lengths, and depths, and heights that are in him, taken but little with the glory and blessedness that they are to go to when they die: wherefore they are neither so mortified to this world, so dead to sin, so self-denying, so delighted in the book of God, nor so earnest in desires to be acquainted with the heights, and depths that are therein. No, this is reserved only for those who are devoted thereto; who have been acquainted with God in a measure beyond that which your narrow-spirited Christians understand.”

Or remain in a perpetual state of indifference to the magnitude of this gift of love, as those who knew Him well, for “it is worth your noting, that all the while that he was in the world, putting himself upon those other preparations which were to be antecedent to his being made a sacrifice for us, no man, though he told what he came about to many, had, as we read of, an heart once to thank him for what he came about.”

For although they “railed on him, they degraded him, they called him devil, they said he was mad, and a deceiver, a blasphemer of God, and a rebel against the state: they accused him to the governor; yea, one of his disciples sold him, another denied him, and they all forsook him, and left him to shift for himself in the hands of his horrible enemies; who beat him with their fists, spat on him, mocked him, crowned him with thorns, scourged him, made a gazing stock of him, and finally, hanged him up by the hands and the feet alive, and gave him vinegar to increase his affliction, when he complained that his anguish had made him thirsty. And yet all this could not take his heart off the work of our redemption.”

Yet in light of this magnificent love of God, Bunyan cautions us to regard our sin as “the rape of His mercy, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love. For sin is the opposite of God and is worse than the devil…(manifest in) our ignorance of the vileness of our actions, our slight thoughts of our doings, our slovenly doing of duties… (for) the least sin deserveth hell. The tendencies of thy sins are to kill others...As how many good men and good women do unawares, through their uncircumspectness, drive their own children down in the deep? We will easily count them very hard hearted sinners, that used to offer their children in sacrifice to devils; when ‘tis easy to do worse ourselves; they did but kill the body, but we body and soul in hell, if we have not a care.”

“Do we know how our sins provoke God? How they grieve the Holy Ghost? How they weaken our grace? How they spoil our prayers? And if we know not every one of all these things to the full, how shall we know to the full the love of Christ, which saveth us from them all? Alas! How short are we of the knowledge of ourselves, and of what is in us.”

“For thou canst not know the love of Christ, before thou knowest the badness of thy nature, ‘O wretched man that I am.’ He that sees most of what an abominable wretch he is, he is like to see most of what is the love of Christ. If a man would be kept sure and steadfast, let him labour before all things to know his own wretchedness…it is the first step to salvation…Labour to see the emptiness, shortness, and the pollution that cleaveth to a man’s own righteousness…the loathsomeness of man’s best things…nothing less but sound conviction of the vileness of man’s righteousness, that will enable men to see that the love of Christ is of that nature, as to save a man with it; as to see that it is; of that nature as to justify him without it.”

“He would not have needed to stoop so low to save angels as humans.”… “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God.” 1 John 3:1

Yet even after we are saved, how prone we are to wander from Him. For if He left us to ourselves, we would go right back to satisfying the lusts of our flesh. That is why “He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4) but watches for them, and over them every moment for He knows else they will be hurt (Isa 27:3).” He preserves us from ourselves!

May we bring glory to our Redeemer by being filled with the knowledge of the fullness of His love for us and the magnificent “riches of the glory of his inheritance to (us) His saints.” “Christ has occupied heaven for His own! Of this heaven…we are possessed already…and partake already of the benefits thereof…and ‘tis fit that we should…rejoice in this, talk of this, tell one another of this, and live in the expectation of our own personal enjoyment of it.”

This book makes a great devotional for families, and at this time of year, the perfect Valentine’s gift for children. In fact, we purchased one for each of our children so that they will be able to follow along as Jon reads it aloud to them.
 

BIBLICAL CONVERSATIONS, PART II

PRESERVING THE HEART OF HOME BY GATHERING AT OUR TABLE OVER DELICIOUS MEALS AND DEEP CONVERSATIONS

“Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to set forth a defense to everyone who asks you for a reasoned account concerning the hope in you, yet with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

Recently, after expounding on my passion for serving my family delicious meals on beautiful table settings, the immense pleasure it brings me, and my profound gratitude to God for creating me for this glorious purpose, a young mother responded that she had never heard any other mother ever express joy over serving their families in this manner. In fact, all the homeschooling mothers she knew passed that responsibility on to their daughters when they arrived at an age adequate to the job. She in fact had been eagerly anticipating that time herself when her daughters could take over the cooking.

Although I have trained Sonia to create delicious meals, and although she often works alongside me, I do the vast majority of the cooking because that is my service of worship to my Creator by fulfilling my honored purpose for which He created me.

Come Gather at Our Table

Throughout the last 26 years, I have taught and written on the vast importance of this daily ritual, yet I feel it necessary, once again, to reiterate the significance of dining together each day—a sacred ritual our family jealously guards and joyfully embraces.

Out of my deep love for my family and for my Creator, I take great care in ministering to them through God’s gracious gifts of delectable foods that He expressly created for our enjoyment through beautiful colors, attractive shapes, interesting textures, heady aromas, and rich flavors. I love to choose from God’s splendid banquet table of culinary delights—beautiful red and yellow peppers, carrots with feathery green tops, fragrant pineapples, furry kiwis, interestingly shaped squash, shiny rainbow trout, bright orange salmon, lovely edible flowers, beautiful rump roasts, thick chops, colorful peppercorns, fragrant cloves, pearled barley, long loaves, round loaves, and individual loaves of wheat, rye and pumpernickel. Wow, what a treat! Even the chosen words with which we prepare these scrumptious goodies are rich and delightful—simmer, sauté, ladle, stuff, mince, knead, purée, roll, blend, melt, sprinkle, pinch, grate, toss, toast, roast, braise, sift, thicken, slice, pare, and crown.

Equipped with these marvelous resources, I begin preparing comfort foods, those foods rich in texture and taste, hearty in substance and nutrition, that both soothe and cheer as they encompass a combination of pleasant fragrances, appealing colors, interesting textures, and delicious flavors, all lovingly arranged and working together to comfort both body and soul.

The saying that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach is not some Victorian cliché, but a fact that bears witness to the endorphins (those chemicals that enable us to feel pleasure) that the body releases when smelling, seeing, and eating food. Who of us has not walked into a kitchen emanating with the wonderful aroma of food cooking and found our hearts soaring in anticipation of beef roasts, pot roasts, rib roasts, round steak, roasted chicken, chicken and dumplings, pork tenderloin with caramelized onions, vegetable soup, breads, chocolate cake, and cinnamon rolls—just the mention of these lovely meals delights my family’s hearts, making the answer to what’s for dinner a real treat each night.

Yet a grand, overarching plan encompasses far more than preparing delicious meals. Consider the priority God places on food, feasts, and supping with one another. God provided His people with manna from heaven. He brought them to a land flowing with milk and honey. Worshipping Him revolved around food, for there was the meat offering, the grain offering, and the drink offering. Then there were religious feasts—Feast of Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Firstfruits, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Booths—all celebrated with delicious foods.

Christ’s ministry revolved around meals. Christ is referred to as the Bread of life. He feeds the five thousand. He dines with the unsaved and teaches His disciples as He sits with them around the table. Christ breaks bread at His Last Supper. We are commanded to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Our heavenly arrival will be blessed in a marriage supper. Apparently from the vast amount of verses referring to these issues, along with the fact that He created our bodies to require sustenance three times a day, breaking bread and supping together is of paramount importance.

I believe that God designed our minds and bodies in such a way so that we would be forced to stop from our activity-driven lifestyles and come face to face with one another to build family relationships, disciple our children, and enrich others’ lives, for there is a significant correlation between food for the body and food for the soul. That is why it just thrills my heart to know that I have been created for such an honorable task of drawing my family and others to Christ through the sweet fellowship that is found in no other place than in a Christian’s home, and most specifically, around the family dining table, where minds are enriched, relationships are nurtured, hearts are strengthened, souls are comforted, contentment reigns, and heavenly discourse is fostered.

Everything else pales in significance to making my house a home and our dining the Lord’s banquet table. In fact, everything Sonia and I do is focused on serving Jon and the boys. We continually work at cleaning, ordering, decorating, preparing lovely meals, and planning delightful family celebrations. Our thoughts are concentrated on recipes, decorations, and celebrations. Even our acquisitions (decorations, food, books, and games) revolve around these goals, as we continually strive to serve them.

Indeed, I believe that where God’s Spirit lives, He breathes forth beauty and all manner of loveliness into the soul, subsequently pouring forth that beauty and loveliness from that life of grace to the lives of others. Of noble birth, the excellence of a gracious spirit lives to restore the paradise once lost for the glory of God and the pleasure derived from the highest good in this life. In essence, the Almighty who created everything perfectly good and perfectly beautiful and perfectly lovely lives within the redeemed soul to restore the corrupted to a beautiful order. “For by wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches” (Proverbs 24:3).

To this end, I expend all my labor in creating lovely settings that encourage repose from the day’s arduous labors; comfortable surroundings, which encourage us to linger; and elegance that inspires engaging conversation. Accordingly, I set the mood for intimacy with candlelight, twinkle lights, linen tablecloths, beautiful centerpieces, silver, crystal, and china—all the marvelous things God has given us to create a paradise for communion with Him and each other. Since we are created in His image, everything we touch should reflect His touch of excellence, beauty, and grace, including, most specifically, our meals and table settings.

Lovely meals enjoyed in a lovely setting draw our hearts and minds on conversation, which Jon and I use to enlighten and enrich our children’s minds and those of our guests. And although we engage our children in every facet of our thoughts throughout the day, there is something very special about settling down together and lingering over candlelight and fine food. In a very real sense, our dining table is the intellectual and moral center for instructive, stimulating, profitable discussions on a wide range of topics. In essence we train our children to listen and learn, to think and converse in a meaningful way by broadening their interest in persons, places, and things that are all a part of this wonderful world, so that they may be filled with a fuller knowledge of their magnificent Creator. For the most part this encompasses conversation drawn from our well of spiritual truths, but it also includes Jon teaching from books, articles, or the catechism.

We particularly delight in engaging conversation mined from the gems of God’s Word, as we challenge one another, and others, to think deeper and reach higher for truths yet unknown, whereby redeeming the time by imparting a fuller knowledge of God.

Committed to enriching the lives of our children, and those of our guests, Jon and I continually feast on the bread of life so that we are adequately equipped to nourish others—thinking God’s thoughts after Him, that we may bring others into His presence. In essence we sow seed, water the seeds, nurture the seedlings, and continue to enrich the soil around their roots until their trunks reach toward heaven, at which point we prune so that they may bear more fruit.

Gathering around our dining table is certainly the most pleasurable defining moment of the day. Being a part of God’s great design to bring families together over and over again for the purpose of feeding their minds, hearts and bodies, we have the perfect opportunity to shape the tastes and minds of each gathered member as we look eye to eye and share heart to heart lessons learned from our trials and our blessings, while sharing the interesting events of the day all in the light of the Word.

To pass on my love for fine dining, I continue to copy all my signature dishes into a beautiful recipe binder for my daughter as part of her rich inheritance. And then I also place some of the boys’ favorites in a recipe box for each of them, but Sonia will have all the recipes so that when I have passed on to glory, the boys will continue to return to her house over and over again for their favorites and for the fellowship that they inspire.

I sometimes wonder how many generations will be delighted by these dishes, signed with thumbprint smudges, all telling a story of my love and care for my family.

Ministering to my own family by preparing meals that not only appeal to their senses but also satisfy their hunger and strengthen their bodies is so rewarding, but even beyond this blessing, gathering together to pray and give thanks to our Lord, to sup one with another, to share the same food, to share the same truth, and share each other’s thoughts binds us together by knitting our minds and hearts one to the other. It is the highlight of each day when we settle down and linger together over fine food and candlelight to enjoy each other’s company while also sharing “mmm, mmm goods.”

Cultivation of Patience, Listening, Discoursing

When I was a child, nothing gave me greater pleasure than listening to my parents talk as we sat around our dinner table. I loved to hear their interesting stories, their thoughts and feelings, their laughter and joy. Feasting on every word, I would sit for hours as they filled my little soul with the rich cream of life.

It is still the highlight of each day when my own family gathers together around our own table, as we join hands and hearts, to give thanks to our Lord, to sup one with another, to look into each other’s eyes while we share each other’s experiences and bare our souls. Lingering there, well after all is eaten, we continue to nourish our souls, knowing full well that it is truly the most important sustenance that continually draws us closer into a never-ending circle of love. It is around this table that we learn to develop authentic, intimate relationships that will not only transcend the miles in later years, but will also set a pattern for all future relationships. In essence, it is the gathering place where we learn and practice the art of friendship.

When just babes, we begin learning the most basic and foremost lesson—that of listening. At first, we can do nothing but listen, which is good, so by the time we find our way to express our own thoughts, we’ve had plenty of time listening to endless conversations—where those we love have shared wisdom, interesting discoveries, intimate thoughts, frequent reminiscences, laughter and joy—and we begin to understand the blessings of sharing one with another. We learn to reach beyond ourselves and dip deep into the well of another’s soul. In this depth of our knowledge of the other’s soul, we learn the basis for rich and meaningful relationships.

From listening to our parents, we learn to concentrate, with genuine interest and concern, listening with eyes and heart as well as ears, and to respond with questions and appropriate comments of understanding and encouragement. Out of all this sharing naturally flows our own thoughts, and in such a safe sanctuary, we in turn learn to share honestly from the depth of our own souls.

My prayer is that you will come to fully realize your honored role and the unparalleled opportunity you have to draw your loved ones to Christ. May you gather around your own table each day and night to experience that fullness of life and impart to your children an inheritance that will richly bless them and their posterity.

Psalm 16:5,6 “The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.”

God’s Priority on Food and Feasting

Feasts and Suppers
Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of the Ingathering, Feast of Weeks, Feast of the Passover, Feast of Booths, the Lord’s Supper.
Exodus 10:9 “Moses said, ‘We shall go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we shall go, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.’”
Exodus 12:14,24 “Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.… And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.”
Leviticus 23:39,41 “On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days…it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations…”
Parable of the wedding feast Matthew 22:4 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen, and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’”
Luke 14:12-17, Matthew 9:10, Mark 2:15
The Lord’s Supper was instituted while they were eating. Matthew 26:26 “While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’”

Food in Worship
Leviticus 3:16 “The priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar as food, an offering by fire for a soothing aroma; all fat is the LORD’s.”
Leviticus 24:5,6 “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD.”
Numbers 4:7,8 “Over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall also spread a cloth of blue and put on it the dishes and the pans and the sacrificial bowls and the jars for the drink offering, and the continual bread shall be on it. They shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet material…”

Food
Leviticus 19:23,25 “When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food…in the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you; I am the LORD your God.”
Proverbs 30:33 “For the churning of milk produces butter…”
1 Kings 4:22-23 “Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal, ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.”
1 Kings 10:4,5 “When the queen of Sheba perceived all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his servants…there was no more spirit in her.”
1 Peter 2:2,3 “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

Gratitude
Numbers 15:19 “Then it shall be, that when you eat of the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the LORD.”

Special Occasions
Genesis 21:8 “The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.”

Hospitality
Genesis 19:3 When the two angels came to Sodom , Lot “prepared a feast for them…”
Genesis 26:30 When Isaac’s enemies came to him to make a covenant of peace, Isaac “made them a feast, and they ate and drank.”

Tree of Life
Genesis 2:9 “Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Fatness of the Land
Genesis 27:28 “Now may God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine.”
Exodus 25:29,30 “You shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times.”

Land Flowing with Milk and Honey
Exodus 3:8 “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…”



SIGNATURE TOUCHES FOR THE DINING ROOM

Creating a lovely atmosphere in the dining room or dining area is crucial for intimate conversation. The first component to consider toward achieving that goal is lighting. Overhead lights are cold and harsh, but they can easily be softened to warm the room by placing them on a dimmer. But even better yet is keeping the overhead light off altogether and instead using soft low lighting created from candles and twinkle lights.

Placed in candelabras, in crystal rose bowls, in crystal compotes, in candleholders, on mirrors, and floated in crystal bowls with flowers, candles are an integral part of every evening meal.

Twinkle lights are also crucial to the overall atmosphere intertwined in grapevines above the dining room table and placed over mirrors, around our china cabinet, and sometimes even in the china cabinet. They add a spectacular charm. As do mirrors, hung near the table so that they reflect the candlelight.

Upholstered chairs or cushions soften the room and make it more comfortable. I have actually used very inexpensive remnants for our chairs, spending a little extra on comfort by adding an extra depth of cushion.

Linen tablecloths soften the table and create a classic background that highlights the china and crystal.

We don’t drink out of our good crystal goblets every day, but we do drink out of cut glass every meal, which we find very inexpensively at Home Goods. Even when the children were younger, I always had a smaller version of our crystal goblets and everyday cut glasses for their use.

When I was first married, I did not receive, nor could we afford, many pieces from my sterling silver pattern, so I selected a more affordable stainless pattern, but one that looked very much like my beautiful sterling design.

I have accumulated our china, crystal, linens, and place settings over the past 33 years, patiently waiting for sales and clearance. However, since Sonia was little, I have constantly acquired china, crystal, serving pieces, and linens for her so that she is set by the time she marries.

Soft, warm, and beautiful; brilliant, stunning, spectacular; dramatic, dazzling, and breath taking; marvelous and magnificent—these are the goals we wish to attain when it comes to creating a lovely atmosphere for our family’s dining.


COME GATHER AT OUR TABLE

If Angels Could Eat, It Wouldn’t Be Angel Food Cake

Let’s be honest, if angels could eat, it wouldn’t be angel food cake but chocolate cake they would choose. As superior beings, their intelligence would certainly direct them to the most delicious, classic, rich dessert on the face of the earth.

Chocolate Joy Cake
This is a very light, delicious cake. However, I like to double this recipe so that I have four layers instead of two-three for a beautiful presentation, and one just for snacking. I also double the icing recipe so that I have plenty. I do not like to skimp on icing, wondering if I will have enough to cover adequately.

If you are concerned about the uncooked egg in the Chocolate Joy Icing, I have included an additional icing recipe that Diane Drinkard gave me that is equally delicious.

3 oz. chocolate
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. butter
1-2/3 c. sugar
3 eggs, beaten
2-1/4 c. sifted cake flour
3 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. buttermilk
1 t. vanilla

Melt chocolate with water over low heat. Cook 3-5 minutes or until thick. Cool. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs. Add cooled chocolate. Sift dry ingredients. Add alternately with milk and vanilla. Pour batter into two 9-inch round greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350º degrees for 30-35 minutes. Invert pans on wire rack to cool. Ice with Chocolate Joy Icing.

Chocolate Joy Icing

6 T. butter
1 egg yolk
3 c. powdered sugar
4 T. cocoa
4-1/2 T. hot water
1 t. vanilla

Cream butter with egg yolk. Sift powdered sugar with cocoa and add alternately with water. Add vanilla. Beat until smooth. Spread between layers, on top, and down sides.

Chocolate Butter Cream Icing

6 T. butter
3/4 c. cocoa
2-2/3 c. unsifted powdered sugar
1/3 c. milk
1 t. vanilla

Cream butter. Mix cocoa with powdered sugar. Mix milk with vanilla. Alternate dry ingredients with milk. Beat until smooth. Spread between layers, on top, and down sides.


ECONOMY-Primarily, the management, regulation, and government of a family or the concerns of a household. A frugal and judicious use of money; the management which expends money to advantage, and incurs no waste. Economy includes also a prudent management of all the means by which property is saved or accumulated; a judicious application of time, of labor, and of the instruments of labor.

Management of the Family
Preparing my children for their roles as fathers and mothers began when they were just babies, as I would carry them in slings everywhere I went, talking to them about what I was doing each step of the way. When they were toddlers not only did I set up their bedroom with child sized sink, stove, china cabinet, dishes, plastic goblets, utensils, napkins, food, table, tablecloths, centerpieces, chairs, baby dolls, baby buggy, baby bed, baby clothes, baby bottles, baby food, highchair, baby blankets, baby bibs, ironing board, iron, dress-up clothes, blackboard, toys for their babies… but I played house with them every day in their own bedroom, and then had them help me with everything I did the rest of the day. As young as two years old, they stood on a high stool and helped me clean, chop, stir, knead…whatever I was doing, they were right there with me, as I instructed them on every facet of the process, which included helping me decorate the table, set the table, make pretty plates, and efficiently clean up. Equally important is that they always saw me smiling as I daily reveled in fulfilling my duty to serve my family, and so they now happily serve as well.

As soon as they could sit in a highchair, they learned to sit quietly at the table and listen to our conversations and our reading.

Incurs No Waste
The saying, “If you’re served lemons, make lemonade” must have originated from a mother who managed her household well. Training our children to use resources wisely is of paramount importance, especially when it comes to perishable food. When we had too many pears left over from our vegetable co-op, I directed Sonia to improvise and make pear sauce just like we make applesauce. Leftover tomatoes are oven roasted. Mashed potatoes are incorporated into chicken soup. Chicken carcasses are boiled for chicken broth. Small amounts of leftover vegetables are made into soup or thrown into an omelet. A little leftover beef and gray is made into beef barley soup for lunch. Other scraps go to the animals. Peelings and eggshells go into the compost pile.



MULTI-GENERATIONAL FAMILY BUSINESS

Multi-generational businesses are formed on mutual commitment to family and to the family’s legacy. In our minds, they are covenants at their best, their continuity binding the generations into a league of covenant keepers whose faithfulness is not only blessed in one generation but multiple generations, and who in turn bring blessings to their community and country at large over multiple generations. That is why we are always so pleased to present you with companies that exemplify this biblical doctrine.

Toasting Martinelli for Preserving Their Family Legacy

During the holidays and on other memorable occasions, our family often toasts the Lord with Martinelli’s effervescent sparkling apple cider, so it was with great pleasure that we discovered this company’s multi-generational history, thanks to Erica Keithly. As a matter of fact, this year marks Martinelli’s 143rd year commitment to their family legacy, which according to John Martinelli, is their most important goal—a legacy for excellence that five generations have maintained by working together to produce premium products—an excellence that has achieved 50 gold medals.

Martinelli’s commitment to their family’s honored reputation has led them to maintain their quality by processing their apples just as they did back in 1868, in spite of modern technology, which offers alternative methods for higher yield. So unlike other producers who increase their volume by heating their produce, the only time Martinelli’s apple juice feels any heat is during flash pasteurization. Instead, the juice remains at orchard temperature during pressing, settling, and filtering, which in turn preserves the fresh apple flavor derived from this traditional method. As a result of this commitment to excellence, in contrast to other competitors who add water, sweeteners, and preservatives, fresh apple juice is all you get when you drink Martinelli’s products.

One of California ’s oldest family owned and operated businesses, S. Martinelli and Company was established in 1868, shortly after Swiss immigrant Stephen Martinelli came to America to join his brother Louis on his farm in central California . Located in the fertile Pajoro Valley , Martinelli’s juice making operation helped make this area the largest apple-producing region in the world. Even as China garnered 80% of the world’s apple juice market by paying workers just $2 a day, Martinelli continued to keep their local growers in business. This meant paying a premium price for apples because the American growers pay their workers $20 an hour, but loyalty to their suppliers is another sterling quality of this family’s heritage. Accordingly, the Martinelli family knows their growers on a personal level, many because their great grandfather purchased apples from the great grandfathers of these same growers. Presently Martinelli purchases 90 percent of the valley’s Fuji , Gala, Red and Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, Honey Crisp, and Newtown Pippin, brought here in the 1700s by Benjamin Franklin.

Looking ahead for the best interest of future generations, Martinelli has expanded by developing sparkling apple; cranberry, grape, pomegranate, pear, peach, raspberry, and wildberry; lemonade, mango lemonade; and super fruit blends Awesome Açai Blueberry, Goji Tropical, Powerful Pomegranate Yumberry, Refreshing Rainforest Blend, and Yummy Yumberry Blueberry.

Locally grown, hand sorted, traditionally pressed, and taste tested each day by the family, an exceptional product is created, a product we can all be proud of because it is made right here in America. Faithfulness is the basis of a covenantal community, which in turn blesses the country at large, but then it also takes customers who are faithful to invest in American made products created by companies that work to preserve family, community, and country. For more information, visit www.martinellis.com.


IN THE GARDEN

David Austin’s Handbook of Roses

It might seem a little early to be thinking of gardening, after all our Christmas tree and decorations are still up, and will be throughout February, but since Valentine’s Day is typically associated with roses, and roses are shipped in March for our climate, this month is actually ideal for selecting more Old English roses for our landscape. Besides, names like Princess Anne, Duchess of Cambridge, Lady of Shalott, and Winchester Cathedral just warm my heart like a good cup of English tea.

Why English Roses? Well let me just share a few reasons from the catalog: “English Roses combine the delicate charm and fragrance of an Old Rose, with wide color range and repeat-flowering of a Modern Rose. English Roses have been bred…for the delicate charm and fragrance. The form of flowers of English Roses is very much that of an Old Rose: they may be cup-shaped or in the shape of a rosette, often with numerous small petals, the light between the petals giving them a warm and glowing effect, or the petals may turn downwards, to provide a more domed flower. English Roses have natural, shrubby growth or may be gracefully arching.

English Roses are notable for their rich and varying fragrances. In this way, they are undoubtedly second to none. Among them, in their different varieties, you will find not only the beautiful Old Rose fragrance, but tea, musk, myrrh, fruit and a whole variety of other fragrances; indeed, no group of flowers of any kind can rival them in this respect. Arranged, they make a beautiful picture and often remind us of the flower paintings of the old Dutch Masters.”

After highlighting charming characteristics like that, I find it hard to resist, besides the fact that the old Dutch Masters paintings are my favorites.

And so this year, I hope to have another grouping of roses planted, hopefully on a wrought iron or picket fence in my front yard with a new arbor over our walk, at least that is what I am hoping for. Nevertheless, the children are ordering several new varieties for me, which will grace our home throughout the growing season.

English Roses as Shrubs, Old Roses, Rambling Roses, and Tree Roses are just a few of the chapter headings in David Austin’s marvelous catalog—the most beautiful rose catalog I have ever seen, thanks to Diane Drinkard. So do yourself a favor and order this magnificent catalog for yourself, but make your selections by the end of February so your Old English Roses have time to acclimate and become established before hot weather descends upon them. “Your Old English Roses” has a rather charming and pleasing ring to it, doesn’t it? www.davidaustinroses.com or 800-328-8893.


FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE

Ordering Recipe File

Since God created a vast variety of foods, I believe our consumption should include some of everything. Therefore, when I was first married, I listed dishes that we enjoyed and ordered a recipe file accordingly titled Brunch, Appetizers, Breads, Soups, Salads, Sauces, Meals, Desserts. At the front of the file, I listed main dishes on index cards under headings such as beef, chicken, pasta…I also kept a file on the meals served to every guest.

Later when the boys started working in our business, I added a lunch file so that when conference tasks consumed my thoughts, I was able to refer to it to pique my recollection so that I always had wonderful lunches ready for the boys when they arrived home.

The following is a list of foods to be incorporated into the daily diet.

Meats-beef, lamb, chicken, pork, duck, turkey, fish
Grains-wheat, oats, barley, quinoa, rye, buckwheat, rice, corn…
Rice-wild, brown, long, short, risotto, basmati, arborio…
Potatoes ( Idaho , Yukon , red, sweet)
Vegetables-peppers (red, yellow, orange, and a variety of hot), mushrooms, onions, scallions, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, pea (snap, snow, Crowder, pink), beans (a variety of green and purple bush and pole, lima, black, Great Northern, red kidney, garbanzo, black-eyed, pink lady…), tomatoes (red, orange, yellow, purple…), cucumbers, red and green cabbage, okra (green and purple), carrots, eggplant (purple, lavender, white), avocados, corn (yellow, white, multi colored-all varieties that have not been genetically modified), asparagus, parsnips, beets (yellow, purple, red and white), squashes, radishes, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, garlic, cilantro, parsley, and a vast variety of salad greens…
Fruits-strawberries, rhubarb, grapefruit, oranges, peaches, plums, blackberries, blueberries, apples, apricots, pineapple, cranberries, melons, lemons, limes, mangoes, figs, dates, kiwis, pears…

From here, I broke down each category into particular dishes ordered according to meals-breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For instance, when it came to something as simple as corn: Corn-corn meal mush, corn meal pancakes, tortillas, corn soup, corn muffins, polenta, creamed corn, corn cakes, corn meal cake… I ordered as such: Cornmeal mush and cornmeal pancakes were for breakfast. Tortillas formed the main foundation of a lunch. Corn soup was a first course, accompanied by cornmeal muffins, while polenta, creamed corn, and corn cakes were vegetable accompaniments; followed by cornmeal cake as a dessert. God created order; therefore, being created in His image and possessing His Spirit, we do everything likewise even in meal planning so that everything is ordered with purpose according to the meal or when it would be served in the course of a meal.

I have quickly put a list together of some of the vast number of dishes I serve on a regular basis. After cooking as long as I have, I rarely look at index cards or recipes anymore, as meals come naturally to mind. But it never hurts to review every once in a while to make certain I have not forgotten something that everyone likes.

BREAKFAST/BRUNCH
Cornmeal mush
Cornmeal pancakes
French toast with strawberries
Granola yogurt fruit compote
Oatmeal with cranberries and pecans
Oatmeal with cream and brandied raisins
Pancakes
Waffles with strawberries
Fruit
Cantaloupe filled with blueberries, strawberries, pineapple
Fruit salad-apples, nectarines, blueberries, kiwis
Fruit smoothie
Honeydew and cantaloupe
Oranges
Pear halves stuffed with cream cheese with honey, almonds
Peeled red grapefruit
Rhubarb custard pie
Stewed rhubarb
Strawberries and cream
Eggs
Bacon and egg quesadillas
Eggs Benedict
Egg casserole
Egg Soussard
Four-minute eggs
Fried eggs
Quiche
Scrambled eggs
Meat
Bacon
Biscuits and gravy
Breakfast steaks
Ham
Sausage links
Sausage patties
Bread
Banana muffins
Biscuits
Blueberry muffins
Carrot muffins
Cinnamon rolls
Cinnamon sour cream twists
Cinnamon swirl bread
Cranberry orange bread
Cranberry oat scones
Gooey butter cake
Strawberry cream scones
Strawberry muffins

APPETIZERS
Artichoke and cheese dip
Basil cheese terrine
Cheese ball
Chi chis
Crab dip
Crab cakes
Crab Rangoon
Egg rolls
Fruit dip
Inside outside crab Rangoon
Mango chutney log
Mango chutney torta
Miniature pizzas
Onion dip
Stuffed mushrooms
Vegetable bars

BREAD
Butter horns
Ciabatta
Classic sandwich
Corn
Corn muffins
Country white
Crescents
Cuban
French
Italian
Oatmeal
Pumpernickel
Pumpkin
Russian rye
Rye
Whole wheat
Whole wheat rolls
Sourdough
Zucchini

SOUP
Beef barley
Black bean
Butternut squash
Cheese ale
Cheesy broccoli
Chicken noodle
Chicken and rice
Clam chowder
Cream of asparagus
Cream of mushroom
Cream of tomato
French onion
Leek
Lentils
Meatball
Minestrone
Navy bean
Olive
Potato
Red beans and rice
Roasted tomato
Shrimp gumbo
Tortellini
Tortilla
Vegetable
White chili

SALAD
Broccoli delight salad
Carrot
Chinese slaw
Corn
Cranberry
Creamy potato
Creamy slaw
Cucumber with sour cream
Cucumber and tomato
Deviled eggs
Eggplant
Field peas
Frozen fruit cup
Hearts of palm
Mediterranean couscous
Layered
Lemon cream cheese Jell-o chiffon
Lettuce
Oil and vinegar slaw
Orange coconut
Pasta
Peach with cream cheese and red onions
Pickled beets
Pineapple cheese
Radishes
Spinach
Strawberry banana mold
Stuffed celery sticks
Stuffed eggs
Tomato
Waldorf

DRESSINGS
Avocado
Bleu cheese
Cranberry vinaigrette
Creamy Italian
Greek
Honey mustard
Italian
Lemon zest
Magic Pan
Mayfair
Ranch
Wilted

GRAIN
Wheat, oats, barley, quinoa, rye, buckwheat, rice, corn…

RICE
Broccoli rice
Wild rice medley
Wild rice with mushrooms

POTATOES
Baked Idaho
Baked sweet
Buttered new
French fries
Fried
Mashed Idaho
Mashed with carrots
Mashed sweet
Pancakes
Roasted sweet potato
Scalloped
Stuffed
Twice baked

VEGETABLES
Asparagus with Hollandaise
Asparagus with lemon butter
Baked buttered cabbage
Bean medley
Beet and sweet potato fries
Black beans
Bread crumbed carrots and zucchini
Buttered beets
Buttered carrots
Buttered baby lima beans
Carrots and peas
Cheesy broccoli
Corn on the cob
Corn cakes
Creamed corn
Creamed onions
Eggplant, roasted, stuffed
Green bean amandine
Green beans with cream of mushroom soup
Grilled eggplant
Grilled kohlrabi
Macaroni and cheese
Mashed cauliflower
Mashed parsnips
Mushroom soufflé
Okra pancakes
Okra and stewed tomatoes
Onion tart
Polenta
Roasted beets with sweet potatoes
Roasted broccoli and cauliflower
Roasted Brussels sprouts
Roasted cauliflower with capers
Roasted parsnips
Roasted peppers
Sautéed snow peas
Soufflé
Squash baked
Squash casserole
Sweet sour green beans
Sweet sour red cabbage
Swiss cheese medley
Tomato tart

APPLES
Applesauce
Crisp
Dumplings
Pie
Sautéed
Waldorf salad

BEEF
Beef enchiladas
Braised short ribs
Breaded steak
Burgundy
Chop suey
Corned beef
Fried steak
Grilled steak
Kabob
Pot roast
Roasted tenderloin
Round steak and gravy
Rump/top round roast
Shredded chuck tacos
Shredded chuck tortillas
Spiedini
Stew
Stir-fry
Tex-Mex chili

GROUND MEAT
Barbecued meatballs
Cabbage rolls
Chili
Chili mac
Chili tamales
Enchiladas
Hamburgers
Italian meatballs
Lasagna
Manicotti
Meatballs with polenta/tomatoes
Meatball soup
Meatball spaghetti
Meatball stroganoff
Meatloaf
Mexican casserole
Mostaccioli
Pappardelle with tomatoes and cream
Salisbury patties
Shepherd’s pie
Spaghetti
Spanish rice
Stuffed cabbage rolls
Stuffed peppers
Swedish meatballs
Tacos

CHICKEN
Almond crepes
Almond encrusted
Apricot glazed
Baked
Barbecued
Brandied breasts with Swiss cheese
Breaded with cheese
Breaded with honey sauce
Caribbean chicken
Cashew
Cheesy enchiladas
Cranberries
Curried stir-fry
Dumplings
Fajitas
Figgy barbecue
Fried
Grilled
Kiev
Lemon roasted
Marinated grilled
Marsala
Mushroom crepes
Mustard cream
Noodle soup
Oven fried
Parmesan
Parmigianino
Potpie
Puff pastry
Rice soup
Roasted with stuffing under skin
Salad
Stir fry
Stuffed baked
Sweet and sour
Tetrazzini
White chili

TURKEY
Creamed
Puffed pastry
Roasted
Tetrazzini

PORK
Baked chops
Barbecued chops
Barbecued ribs
Barbecued steaks
Bay leaf studded pork shoulder
Breaded fried chops
Ham and cheese rolls
Ham and mushroom crepes
Madera creamed ham
Pork fried rice
Pork roast with fruit compote
Pork roast with Marsalis gravy
Pot stickers
Pulled pork
Ribs in sauerkraut
Stuffed chops

PASTA
Cannelloni
Eggplant parmesan
Fettuccine Alfredo
Lasagna
Linguini with clam sauce
Manicotti
Meatballs spaghetti
Mostaccioli
Pasta con broccoli
Pappardelle with tomatoes and cream
Pizza
Ravioli
Rigatoni carbonara
Spaghetti
Spiedini
Tetrazzini
Tortellini

FISH
Breaded cod
Breaded flounder
Breaded tilapia
Breaded trout
Coconut shrimp
Crab cakes
Crab rangoon
Creamed shrimp on angel hair
Dover sole with lemon butter
Grilled salmon
Lobster bisque
Oyster stew
Salmon croquettes
Scallops
Shrimp creole
Shrimp linguine
Shrimp risotto
Shrimp scampi
Shrimp stir-fry
Steamed lobster
Steamed mussels
Thai green curry shrimp

LAMB
Curried kabobs
Curried roast
Grilled lamb chops
Roasted

GAME
Roasted duck
Barbecued deer

DESSERT
Bananas foster
Baklava
Blackberry cobbler
Blackberry jubilee
Bread pudding with brandied hard sauce
Brownies
Cherries jubilee
Crepes
Fried ice cream
Peach cobbler
Rhubarb cobbler
Sorbet
Strawberry shortcake

CAKES
Blueberry cheesecake
Carrot
Chocolate
Chocolate cheesecake
Cream cake
Festive blitz torte
Frozen mocha cheesecake
German chocolate
Japanese fruit
Kentucky butter rum
Orange cake
Pina colada cheesecake
Pineapple surprise
Plum
Pumpkin chocolate swirl cheesecake
Raspberry pinwheel

CANDY
Caramels
Divinity
Fudge
Nut clusters
Peanut brittle
Truffles

COOKIES
Almond puffs
Angel pecan slices
Apricot balls
Butter
Chocolate chip
Date nut pinwheels
Hungarian butter horns
Key lime
Lemon puffs
Lemon squares
Oatmeal
Pecan tassies
Peanut butter
Peanut butter kisses
Seven layer
Shortbread
Sugar

CUSTARDS
Bread pudding with brandy sauce
Chocolate mousse
Danish apple custard
Egg
Lemon
Rice pudding

PIES
Apple
Apple crumb
Blackberry
Chocolate
French silk
Key lime
Peach
Pecan
Rhubarb custard
Rhubarb strawberry
Strawberry

TART
Apple
Peach
Pear
Rustic plum tart

LUNCH This was added when the boys started working to pique my memory to have great lunches ready for them when they arrived home from a hard morning’s work. Of course, we always serve leftovers from the previous night’s meal, but if we have to make lunch from scratch, we have a list to help us recollect favorites.

SANDWICHES
Bacon avocado
Barbeque
Brats kraut
Chicken croissants
Grilled cheese
Grilled chicken onions peppers provolone
Grilled ham and cheese
Hamburgers
Meatloaf
Pita curried lamb feta peppers
Pita stuffed with tuna salad
Pulled pork
Reuben
Roast beef Swiss cheese
Tacos
Tomato and feta
Tortillas-chicken and steak

SALAD
Applesauce
Black eyed pea
Carrot
Chicken
Creamy potato
Cucumber
Chicken
Couscous
Egg
Fruit
Green feta olives
Lettuce
Mediterranean couscous
Orange
Pasta
Quinoa lemon vinaigrette
Stuffed red peppers
Stuffed tomatoes
Tomato
Tuna
Waldorf

SOUP
Beef/barley
Broccoli cheese
Chicken/rice
French onion
Meatball
Mushroom
Navy bean
Tortellini
Tortilla
Vegetable

MAIN DISH
Chicken potpie
Chili
Chili mac
Chili and tamales
Enchiladas
Fajitas
Fish and chips
Fried chicken
Mostaccioli
Oven baked polenta mushrooms
Pizza
Pork fried rice
Quiche
Shepherds pie
Spaghetti
Stew
Stuffed baked potatoes
Tomato and onion tart
Turkey tetrazzini

DESSERTS
Apple crisp
Banana muffins
Blackberry cobbler
Biscotti
Blueberry muffins

Brownies
Carrot cake muffins
Chocolate chip cookies
Chocolate pie
Cranberry orange bread
Fruit cups
Ice cream cones
Ice cream sundaes
Key lime squares
Oatmeal cookies
Peanut butter cookies
Pecan squares
Plum tart
Pound cake
Rhubarb pie
Smoothies
Strawberry muffins
Strawberry pie
Strawberry shortcake
Swedish sand tarts with fruit