God Uses Whoever He Chooses! (Oh, my, that rhymes . . .)

At church this morning one of the passages that was included in the sermon was Nehemiah 1:1-4.  I am studying the book of Nehemiah in a Precept Bible Study class and I have grown very fond of this exceptional man who really followed closely where God led.

Note:  The blue parentheses below are my additions.

Nehemiah 1:1-4 (NASB)


1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev (Nov-Dec) in the twentieth year (of Persian King Artaxerxes - 445-444 B.C.), while I was in Susa the (winter) capitol (of Persia),
2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire."
4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.


Some general background - read on - this is exciting stuff!

The 10 Northern Tribes (Israel) were taken into captivity by Assyria in 722 B.C.  Babylon became the big dog by defeating Assyria.  Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, took the 2 Southern Tribes (Judah) into captivity in 3 waves from 605 B.C. through 586 B.C.  It was in 586 B.C. that Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed as the last of the 3 waves was taken away.  Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians in 539 B.C.

Now, watch the amazing things our Almighty God did!

In 538 B.C. God stirred King Cyrus' (the Median King) spirit to issue a decree that basically said God had appointed Cyrus to build Him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah.  So, Cyrus allowed the Jew, who wished to return to Judah to build the Temple. Zerubbabel led the group back to Jerusalem where the Temple foundation was rebuilt.  However, the enemies of the Jews agitated and the work on the Temple itself ceased in 534 B.C.  In 520 B.C. the Persian King Darius I (a couple of kings after Cyrus) checked past decrees and issued his own decree that work should proceed.  Amazingly, Darius also decreed that the "neighbors" were to leave the Jews alone as they built the Temple.  And, even more amazing, Darius decreed that the cost of building this Temple to the Jewish God Yahweh was to come from the Persian royal treasury.  Just points out how amazing God is that he can stir a pagan king's heart!  So, the Temple was completed in 516 B.C.

 Now, back to Nehemiah - jump ahead to 445-444 B.C.

When Nehemiah hears that the Jews had not rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem and the state of Jerusalem was dismal, he was heartbroken.  The walls protected the city and if they were broken down, there was no protection.

Nehemiah had a key role in the court of Artaxerxes - he was the king's cup bearer which meant he tasted everything before the king ate or drank it.  That meant if the food or drink was poisoned, bye bye Nehemiah.  Actually, the cup bearer also had a bigger function.  He was very close to the king and had a lot of responsibilities.

Nehemiah was so heartbroken over the state of Jerusalem that he wanted to go there and help fix things.  So, what did he do?  Did he run out on the King and hit the road for Jerusalem?  Heck no!  Nehemiah was a wonderful strategist, planner and leader.  And, he trusted completely in God.  He prayed for FOUR months before he requested that the king would allow him to go help Jerusalem.  And, God was completely faithful to Nehemiah through the whole thing.  Artaxerxes allowed Nehemiah to travel to Jerusalem and sent him with soldiers to keep him safe and letters so he could pass safely through the territories and obtain lumber for the city gates.

So, Nehemiah headed to Jerusalem where he consistently involved God in all his plans and, despite many attempts by the "enemies" to thwart the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, Nehemiah beautifully led the Jews as they worked on the city wall despite the opposition.
                
Needless to say, the wall was completed - actually, it was completed in 52 days!  Wow! Here is a drawing of the wall area that needed rebuilding.  Remember - 52 days!


OK, I guess that's enough to either excite you to read the book of Nehemiah (and perhaps Ezra and Haggai as well since they expand on the "background" I included).  I have to say I really really adore Nehemiah.  What a great leader and lover of God.

In Dr. Donald L. Constable's "Notes on Nehemiah" 2010 Edition he quotes Donald Campbell (Donald K. Campbell, Nehemiah: Man in Charge, p. 23.) as he lists the 21 principles of effective leadership that Nehemiah demonstrated in chapter 2.  I am including them here because, if you are in management or as a non-manager you have to get a group of people to work on a project together, these are excellent principles to exhibit. 

"He established a reasonable and attainable goal

He had a sense of mission

He was willing to get involved

He rearranged his priorities in order to accomplish his goal

He patiently waited for God's timing

He showed respect to his superior

He prayed at crucial times

He made his request with tact and graciousness

He was well prepared and thought of his needs in advance

He went through proper channels

He took time (three days) to rest, pray, and plan

He investigated the situation firsthand

He informed others only after he knew the size of the problem

He identified himself as one with the people

He set before them a reasonable and attainable goal

He assured them God was in the project

He displayed self-confidence in facing obstacles

He displayed God's confidence in facing obstacles

He did not argue with opponents

He was not discouraged by opposition

He courageously used the authority of his position." 

All you who know more about this than I - if I got any of this really wrong, feel free to correct me. :-)

Blessings,

Mary

Aprons, the Armor of God, and Underwater Mines

Last week I attended "Third Tuesday with Friends" at my church.  TTF is a fun evening for ladies of all ages from the church and friends of church attendees.  The group usually does some kind of a little game, a short devotional and lots of good desserts!  The lovely ladies who organize this event each month are very artistic, talented and make good desserts!


This month the theme was Once Upon an Apron.  The loose connection was to the armor of God which was the theme of the devotional.


Ephesians 6:11-17 (NASB)


11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 
12 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. 
13 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.
14 Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE     BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 
15 and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; 
16 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. 
17 And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.


Both the armor of God and the apron protect us; the first from the evil one (Satan) and his minions and the second from food spills as we prepare meals. Of course, that assumes we put them both on.  I was surprised at the number of ladies who still do wear aprons.  I'm not sure I had ever worn an apron before!  So, when we were informed we ALL had to wear aprons for the evening, I was at a loss as were several other ladies who did not bring or own an apron.  LOL, one lady came prepared with a whole bunch of aprons so we could each borrow one!


After an "Apron Parade" we were asked to share our "Apron Stories" with the group.  Several women had great stories associated with their aprons.  Some aprons were made by mothers or grandmothers.  Very touching stories.  I did not have an apron story but all the discussion somehow made me think of my father although I doubt he ever wore an apron.  So, I shared one of my stories about my father's cooking.


OK, I know, my thought processes are strange!  What can I say?  Remember the name of this blog!  But, I shared my father story.


My father was 20 years older than my mother.  He was born in 1894 and died in 1972 at the age of 78.  My father retired at age 65 in 1959 with 3 children under 18.  He was a late bloomer but he bloomed beautifully!  After his retirement, he had a part-time job maintaining the lawns and landscaping for Mesier Park in Wappingers Falls, NY but he also took on most of the "domestic" duties at home because my mother went to work full time - social security isn't/wasn't sufficient to cover the costs of a family of 5.  


One of the duties he took on was the cooking.  I think it's safe to say when a man starts cooking for the first time at age 65, the meals he prepares might be suspect.  Oh, boy, were they!  He cooked with love and dedication to feed our family, but those who had not cooked but were eating the results of his cooking were not impressed to say the least.  But, it was in our best interests to eat what he lovingly cooked.  His famous and oft-repeated comment was "If you don't eat it now, you will have it for sandwiches in a couple of months."  So, usually, we ate!  As far as I know, he never carried out his "sandwiches in a couple of months" threat.


So, you say, now we know why the title includes aprons and the armor of God, but where do the underwater mines come into the picture?      

                                                 


The answer:  My father served them to us for dinner!


OK, not exactly.  But, what he served looked remarkably like the above picture.  He decided to make hamburgers for dinner one night.  he decided he needed something to better hold the meat together.  Rather than using eggs and/or breadcrumbs, or such, he decided to use rice - uncooked rice.  He formed small patties with the meat-rice mixture and put them in the frying pan where he cooked them pretty much to death.  Since they started out small before cooking, they shrank dramatically and took the form of little burger balls - very brown with spikes of mostly uncooked rice poking out at all angles - much like the picture above.  Oh, YUM!  We ate them - remember? - sandwiches in a couple of months?  

I do want to end with you all knowing more about my father than that he was a pretty poor cook.  He was a kind and gentle man who cared very much for his family.  It's just that his cooking was very questionable.  But, look at us! We survived excellently so we just remember with warm affection all the interesting things we ate after he took over most of the cooking. 


Blessings,


Mary

What's in a name, bathroom humor, and good wood makes the difference

Where did I get the name for this blog?  That's the question I'm asked all the time - well, really, no one has asked (yet).  But, I'll tell you anyway!

Back in 1970 a fellow named Bob Ross put together a paperback gem titled Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse.   This slim volume contained photographs (and some sketches and cartoons) of numerous outhouses, some of which were quite unique.  Each photograph was followed by an outhouse poem.  Nothing off color; just cute.  This fascinating work was followed in 1974 by Muddled Meanderings in an Outhouse Number 2 again by the aforementioned Bob Ross.  I am fortunate to be in possession of both slender volumes.  You might even have an opportunity to read them if you ever find yourself in my guest bathroom.  I do not recall how I came by these 2 volumes but it had to have been in the 1970s while I was living in Hawthorne, Nevada.  More surprising is that I still have them!

Getting back to my blog name, I always liked the sound of "muddled meanderings." It flows off the tongue quite nicely.  Given that my brain is often muddled and it mostly meanders rather than following a straight thought line, this seemed like a good description of what this blog will end up being.  Now you know.

Speaking of outhouses reminds me of my mother who died in December 1996.  Now, don't get up in arms!  I'm not saying anything bad about my mother here.  For some reason that I never really understood, the first thing my mother would do when we went to a new restaurant or other location was locate the nearest restroom.  She didn't need to go there (yet) but she sure did want to know where they were just in case.  I guess that helps explain why she always made us (as kids) hit the bathroom before we went anywhere.  I have to say I still do that today!  My bathroom brainwashing was very successful it seems.

Back in 1976 (or thereabouts) I flew back to New York to spend several weeks with my mother so I would be there for her surgery and recovery.  During that time, she and I drove to Bennington, Vermont to look at a Downdrafter wood stove which, at the time, was pretty unique.  Thanks to my meandering mind, I searched and found the patent from 1976 on that stove.  Very neat!  It lists the guy we visited as one of the inventors.

Two things about that trip/stove:

• On the way back from Vermont, my mother and I stopped in a very small town to find a restroom (LOL!  This time we both needed to use it.).  All we could find back then was a small store that had an outhouse.  As we walked down the path to the outhouse, we came upon some dog doo.  My mother, having a good sense of humor, commented "Someone didn't make it to the outhouse." Several years later when I moved back to New York, I stumbled across a jigsaw puzzle titled Nature_Calls - A celebration of rustic practicality" with 14 outhouses on it.  I gave it to my mother who enjoyed the idea but, by then, she didn't feel up to working a jigsaw puzzle.  I still have the unopened puzzle. Perhaps my mother's influence has continued in absentia.  

• My husband at the time and I decided to purchase that Downdrafter stove:

          
Because of the way it was designed, this stove put out a huge amount of heat.  We used it one winter as our only heat source.  Unfortunately, it was hard to control the temperature so there were numerous winter days when I had all the windows wide open and it was still 90 degrees in the house.  This great heat meant the exhaust fumes going up the chimney were extremely hot as well.  This caused us some issues.  We were limited on the wood we could get.  There were very few trees in the Nevada desert where we lived, so we burned what we could get which often included old railroad ties and trash wood.  Can you say creosote?  The extremely hot exhaust fumes once ignited the creosote buildup in the chimney causing a chimney fire.  The noise that made was frightening (like a freight train going by) and the whole house started to vibrate.  My husband went outside and used the garden hose to spray water on the roof and down the chimney to put the fire out.  It was quite a scary time and that was the ONLY winter we used that wood stove!  It would have been great if we had the right wood.

I haven't much liked fireplaces or wood stoves since that winter.

Blessings,

Mary

The First Blog Entry of the First Blog of My Life Proving Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks

I like to talk and I like to write lengthy emails.  Just ask any of my friends; they will confirm this!

There are many disparate thoughts running around in my head much of the time and some of them are quite fascinating - at least to me. :-)  Unfortunately, they disappear as quickly as they arrive if I don't write them down.  So, I thought it might be interesting to record some of these thoughts in a blog.

Today I journeyed to South Austin to teach defensive driving for Travis County Deaf Services.  I have to say these are not my favorite classes to teach.  The students and interpreters are delightful.  The problem is as noted in the first line of this entry (i.e., I like to talk!).  When I teach the deaf, I have to parse what I say so I can get all the required material covered and allow sufficient time for the interpreters to translate and the students to ask questions and those questions be translated to me since I do not understand ASL.  I teach this class at Deaf Services every 2 or 3 months and the students and interpreters are always great.

I have to say I have never seen people talk so much in my life (including me) as the deaf do when they get together.  Their hands go at speeds in excess of anything I've seen :-).  At one point today I jokingly said we should tie one particular student's hands together so he couldn't keep interrupting with not-so-relevant items.  Several students volunteered to perform that task which I found amusing.  So, we have some humor in the classes which helps to keep the students paying attention.

I didn't realize that UT had a big game today - sigh . . .  Fortunately, my teaching venue was on the corner of Cesar Chavez St. and I-35 so I was able to see the stop-and-go traffic northbound on I-35 and take an alternate route home.

Monday I head to Georgetown to teach my usual afternoon/evening defensive driving class at Duke's Barbecue.  Phew . . .

That's all for now . . .

Blessings,

Mary