Vlog Day 3: Ruth 1:1-2

Today we are looking at Ruth 1:1-2.




Additional reading:

• Judges 2:10-19  (what the period of judges looked like)
• Genesis 19:30-38 (how Moab came to be)
• Deuteronomy 8:2-5 (why God allows famines sometimes)

Some helpful background information that I did not cover in my video:

• Bethlehem means "house of Bread."
• The time of the judges followed after Joshua's death.  Joshua was Moses's successor as the leader of the Israelites.  He led them into the promised land of Canaan.
• Prior to this the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and had seen many miracles:
• Parting of Red Sea
• Provision of manna
• Providing water when there was none
• Making water sweet when it was bitter
• Allowing their clothes not to wear out
• Crossing of the Jordan River
• God's presence at Mt. Sinai
• The Commandments
• Under the period of the Judges they did not achieve success against their enemies when they turned away from God. 

Here is a map that shows where Moab is located in relation to Bethlehem.

Things to think about:

• Have you ever turned away from God?  What were the consequences?  
• What specific things did God tell you to do that you did not do?
• Do you believe that God has specific plans for you?

Diary of a Mad White Momma

And by mad - I mean absolutely crazy.  I thought I would give you the day in the life gone wrong but trying to do right.  There is a reason why the following paragraph runs together.  I started leading Esther and wanted to have a mini Purim celebration for the kickoff.  So here goes....  This is yesterday, March 23. 

Wake up.  Get out of bed ~6:55ish.  Did not do my daily bible reading right away.  My son is up and I hear my baby girl making noise.  I turn on the TV for my son.  I get in the shower.  I get dressed.  Get the baby, change her, nurse her.  Make lunch for my oldest two.  Wake up my oldest daughter.  Feed them breakfast.  Dress them.  Decide to attempt my daily bible reading.  Turn off the TV.  Get shoes on the kids.  Get back packs on the kids.  Take everyone to the car.  Buckle the baby in.  Wait for my son to buckle himself in.  Running behind on schedule.  Drive to the preschool and drop the kids off.  Realize I haven't eaten breakfast and drive to a drive through.  Eat and drive home.  Put the baby in the crib for a nap.  Finish my bible reading.  Look at the computer - facebook, bloggy stuff.  Back and forth emails about a meeting.  Text a friend about a meeting and remeeting.  Write an email about the bible study I started leading last night.  Make a worksheet for it.  Wake the baby.  Nurse her.  Go back to church.  Once again I am late.  Meet with a friend for a talk and reconciliation.  Feed baby cheerios and chase her around while we talk.  Talk on the cell phone and counsel as I drive to Homewood to pick up baklava, pita bread, and spanakopita for bible study.  Get something to drink.  Drive back to the church to pick up the kids.  At the end of the carpool line to pickup the kids.  Go home.  Feed baby.  Put baby down for another nap.  Kids play on the back porch.  See that the cookies I was going to make require overnight dough refrigeration.  Decide not to make them.  Decide to make them anyway.  Make the dough.  Refrigerate it.  Work on prayer sheet for Kurdish women.  Find maps of Persian empire, modern day Kurdish area, and modern day Iraq, Iran, etc.  Print worksheets.  Get dough out of refrigerator.  Roll it out.  Cut cookie circles out.  Place jelly in the circles.  Shape into triangle.  Repeat several times.  Cook cookies.  See that they totally fell flat instead of doing what they were supposed to since I did not follow the directions.  Let them cool.  Put the spanakopita in the oven.  Put my bible study materials into a bag.  Cut pita bread into triangles.  Get baby up.  Say hello to my husband.  Nurse baby.  Wrap up spanakopita.  Wrap pita bread.  Put baklava into bag.  Box up cookies.  Put into bag, along with hummus, pita bread, and spanakopita.  Drive to church for a meeting.  Once again - late.  Put stuff in bible study room.  Put stuff in conference room.  Get a cup of water and gather plates, napkins, and forks for food for bible study.  Take them to study room.  Go back to conference room for meeting.  Meet.  Leave early for bible study.  Go to the bathroom.  Hang out waiting for people to arrive.  Get video ready.  Have bible study where hardly anyone eats anything.  Watch Esther video.  Pray.  Depart.  Get video out.  Clean and pack up food.  Drink water.  Go home.  Eat a spanakopita.  Nurse baby.  Put her and oldest daughter into bed.  Come back downstairs.  Look at bloggy things, and write a guest blog on adoption you'll soon see.  Email it to appropriate folks.  Do more bloggy stuff.  My husband says he's going to bed, so I close the computer, and follow suit.

I was going the entire day - I didn't even eat lunch or dinner all because I was preparing for a bible study celebration in which no one celebrated.  And I spent no time at all with my kids or hubby.  Me thinks I will not do that again.

Brokenness

It is so funny how God works. For some time now, God has been working behind the scenes in me on selfishness, humility, and pride. I blogged about it briefly in one of my posts, but I don't remember which one now. God has been dealing with it so much so that I felt called to write a bible study about it. I had this nagging feeling about it. I did a little research about it, but not too much. I kinda thought about it, yet I did not let it persist me either. Two weeks ago, God had me outline the study I was to write.

In all of the persistence (read sarcastically) I mentioned earlier, I checked out a book from the library six weeks ago called, "Brokenness: The Heart God Revives" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I finally finished reading it today because it is due tomorrow. (Just keeping it real!) It is an awesome, highly recommended read. You will definitely get something out of it, and it is a short book. However, you might want to take longer to savor it than I did. I mentioned my desire to write this study to my accountability partner, and she directed me to some other resources that came to her mind on humility.

This book and her resources seem to confirm that I go ahead with the time and effort of writing a bible study. How odd and strange, as even though I love to study Scripture, I don't find myself altogether qualified or capable of writing a study for anyone to actually study - not to mention one on pride and humility - who reallys wants to submit to that? :) I keep telling myself that this study will be written for me, and so I believe it to be. And to be quite frank, I am not one to finish something of this magnitude on my own. With that said, I feel that I must continue to be broken before you - humble to bring repentance before you in truthfulness. And I will be sharing a series of surveys from the "Brokenness" book about the way you can inventory your heart and determine whether you are prideful or broken.

Below are some quotes I enjoyed from the book:

"Again and again, God's Word reveals that he is not as concerned about the depth or extent of the sin we commit as he is about our attitude and response when we are confronted with our sin." p.65

p. 67 she notes the anguish of soul one must feel

"It is in His very nature to be repulsed by pride and to draw near to those who have a humble, broken spirit." p. 68

"I believe one of the reasons that so many people live with chronic loneliness is that they are unwilling to die." p. 104

"True Christian community, as Pastor Ray Ortlund described it, is something few believers ever experience, because it requires that each individual let go of "self" and pour out his life on behalf of others." p. 105

Swimming Lessons day 2 & more

So today was Princess's second day of swimming lessons, and she really warmed up to the pool. On the first day, she was a little timid and shy, but today, she was her usual fishy self. She was swimming around all over the place off of the platform and by herself. She has a tendency to want to watch her feet when she first starts out with the teacher. By the end of the lesson, she was going under, using her arms and legs, and even wearing the magic goggles. She had a blast, and the storms held out until after the lesson was finishing up. I am SO proud of her.

I don't think I have blogged about this, but watching her interact with someone besides me has made me realize that she really does need to go to Mother's Day Out. I hope there are still spots available. I meant to stop by and turn in the registration form today, but I got distracted by the rain and storms, so maybe tomorrow when I go to Mommy Connection!

And, by the way, the LPM blog is offering an online summer bible study, "My, Myself, & Lies" by Jennifer Rothschild, which I am considering doing, since our church does not usually offer summer studies AND I don't really think the childcare situation is the best for Princess. Please let me know if you would like to study with me.