For Sale: My Parent's Home in Waitsburg, WA

Click the Title Link to go the realtor's website to see more information on this property.

This is the large garage with office and loft storage space.

Door leading from garage into office area. This office well insulated.

Office inside of the large garage.

Devotional: On Being Mindful

On Being Mindful

by Marsha Iddings

Deuteronomy 32:18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

"You need to be mindful of your posture", my physical therapist tells me. It is his way of telling me to be constantly aware of how I am sitting and standing.

We are to be constantly mindful of God's presence. We see in Scripture that when people are no longer mindful of God, eventually it leads to them forgetting Him.

When I am constantly mindful of my posture, it helps me avoid certain painful issues. Similarly, when we are constantly mindful of God's presence we are less likely to sin against Him.

Those who do not retain God in their knowlege are on the path to destruction.

Romans 1:28-32 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Always being mindful of God takes work and discipline. I am not always consistent with it and find that those times when I am not mindful of God are the times I am prone to get in trouble.

Are you mindful of God, your Rock? Seek to ever be mindful of Him. Your life will be blessed as a result.

-- This is a weekly devotional. Feel free to forward this to your friends. If you would like to be added to the email list send an email to truthsetsfree@clarkston.com with "subscribe" in the subject line. If you would like to be removed from the list send an email to truthsetsfree@clarkston.com with "remove" in the subject line.

The Dangers of Getting Fat

The Dangers of Getting Fat
by Marsha Iddings

Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

The Bible sometimes uses the term fat to mean prosperity. Prosperity can cause a people to forsake God and take Him lightly. We see this warning in Deuteronomy 8:11-14
"Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;"

I see a picture of our own nation here. Our nation was built originally on a godly, Biblical foundation of Christian values. God blessed our nation as a result. But then something happened. America prospered and became strong. She then forgot the Rock she was built on and little by little forsook God.

It was a slow decline of about 200 years. It happened with just small compromises here and there until the people were complacent. Then an all out forsaking of God began. Evolution replaced the Biblical account of creation in schools. The Bible and prayer was thrown out of the public schools. The sanctity of life was scoffed at and the killing of pre-born babies was accepted. The Ten Commandments was removed from courthouses and manger scenes at Christmas were forbidden in many cities on public land. Now, in some counties home Bible studies are being attacked as unlawful land use. We even have a whole month dedicated as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual Pride month, celebrating blatant sin and disregard for God. (Romans 1: 25-28) Our nation has forsaken and lightly esteemed her God who made her great.

We must shake off our complacency and fall to our knees in repentance and prayer for our nation and our leaders.

When was the last time you stopped and prayed for America? If you are like me, you might be guilty of complaining about what our leaders are doing, but that's as far as you get. With God's help let's try to pray more than we talk.

Marsha's Musings: Celebrating Birthdays Tuesday

My sister and I are going to celebrate our birthday's tomorrow. Another year has passed. I was talking with my daughter the other day about how fast time seems to be moving. We just had Christmas and now we are half way to next Christmas already. My birthday has come around much too quickly. Is it my imagination or does time seem to pass more quickly the older you get? I have noticed two things about growing older.

1. Time passes faster.

2. There are fewer things that I feel like I need or want.

3. God becomes bigger and bigger to me the older I get.

4. I realize more and more how much I am dependent on God's mercy.

Devotional: The Lord Alone

The Lord Alone

By Marsha Iddings

Deuteronomy 32:12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

It was the Lord alone that led them. I find the word alone to be significant. No one but the Lord gets the glory.

In Mark 9 the disciples go up on the mountain with Jesus, and Moses and Elijah appear there with Him. Excited, they want to build three tabernacles, one for each of them. But God the Father interrupts them. "And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves."

The Lord alone. Jesus only. As I think of my own life and see how God has carried me and led me through wilderness, desert times, I must ask, "Who have I given the glory to for it?" Some credit past or present church leaders, departed loved ones, saints, friends, family and the list goes on. Have I given the glory to the Lord God alone? It's a convicting question.

Marsha's Musings: He puts down one and sets up another

Ps 75:6 ¶ For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. {south: Heb. desert}

7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

I read this in my Bible reading today. God is in control. I would pray that perhaps He would see fit to change the leadership in this country. But He has his purposes and they will prevail. If in His perfect judgement He sees fit to demote some of the leadership we have here, it will happen. If not, then I will trust and wait to see what He has in store for us. He knows what He is doing.

How Long?

Psalm 74

10 O God, how long will the adversary reproach? Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever?

This is a question I ask too.

12 ¶ For God is my King from of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth.

16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun.

17 You have set all the borders of the earth; You have made summer and winter.

I need to remember Who God is. I should never lose sight or perspective of the God I love and worship even in the midst of wickedness in high places within our nation.

18 ¶ Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, And that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name.

19 Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beast! Do not forget the life of Your poor forever.

22 Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; Remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily.

Prayer for God to deliver and to act in such a way as to bring glory to His own good name~to plead His own cause is appropriate. However, I need to remember that God doesn't always answer in the way that I think He should. His plans and His thoughts are far higher than mine and He may choose to act in a way that totally baffles me and that I don't understand, yet, He always acts in great wisdom and His plan will prevail in the end. It is times like these when the true essence of trust in God is made clear.

Marsha's Musings: We got a little punny

Tonight we were laughing about Glen Beck making the liberals mad when he carried a concealed weapon into the theater and then later announced publicly what he did. I accidently used some puns in our conversation and my kids got a big kick out of it.

I said, "Glen Beck carried a gun into the theater and got the liberals all up in arms." Later we were comparing Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh. I said, "Glen Beck likes to do things to make the liberals mad while Rush Limbaugh just shoots his lip off at them."

I never intended any of those firearms puns....they just came out that way. :-)

Phony Optimism by Dr. Suess

You could put any number of issues in the place of the word "bombs" and it would be appropriate for today. I can think of a few...Health Care Reform, UN Rights of the Child, Fairness Doctrine, Nationalized Education Standards, Cap & Trade Taxes and the list can go on and on...

Devotional: Strange God's

Strange Gods

By Marsha Iddings

Deuteronomy 32:16-17 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

Last time we looked at the slow decline of America into forsaking God and esteeming Him lightly. We also looked at some of the abominations that are taking place in our nation. Our verse for today says that these things provoke God to anger.

It talks about provoking God to jealously with stange gods and sacrificing to devils and not to God. How have we as a nation done this? What strange gods do Americans worship?

Self has become a god to many Americans. Consider the following:

From the book: "Faith,Hope,and Love:An Inspirational Treasury": "God lies ahead. I convince myself and constantly repeat to myself that: He depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved"

"In December 2006, a NEWSWEEK magazine poll named Marianne Williamson one of the most influential baby boomers. According to Time Magazine, "Yoga, the Cabala and Marianne Willimanson have been taken up by those seeking a relationship with God that is not strictly tethered to Christianity."

"In this course...Marianne will guide you in the realization of your career as a spiritual journey, viewing your path to success as an initiation into your higher Self. She will teach you how to tap into the law of "divine compensation" -- the power of love to compensate for any limitations in the material world. Through devotion, prayer, forgiveness and compassion for self and others, we will activate our miraculous power to turn limited probabilities into unlimited possibilities." Cost for the Seminar: $249 early reg. And $299 standard.

Consider this, taken from a discussion forum at http://www.ttonline.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4639 :

"1. "I AM GOD" statement has come from the mouths of many so called realized mystics around the world. Jesus Christ is one of those great mystics.

2. "I AM GOD" statement is not supposed to be used for ego gratification , instead a person who states that is humbler than a blade of grass.

3 Anyone who is in search of "truth" will finally come to the realization that I AM GOD, whether that person is a Hindu or a Christian or a Moslem or a Jew or an atheist or an agnostic.

I am fascinated by the statement I AM GOD. It is often repeated by the right wing Christian preachers in their sermons to condemn eastern religions as well as New Age. Unluckily, they have no idea the truth behind the I AM GOD concept. I AM GOD concept does not originate from the limited ego of a person but from the mind of a person who has attained self-realization. " (Emphasis mine)

I asked my Facebook friends what they thought were gods to many people. Here is a sampling of their responses:

Money, celebrities, friends, family, religion, computer and internet, video games, TV programs, possessions and the list goes on.

It might surprise you that even service to God can become a god to you. There have been times in my life when this has happened. I was involved doing so many church duties that I didn't have any time left for God. It had become my god.

Basically, any thing or person that is more important to you than your time spent with God is your god. If your goal is self realization and tapping into "the Divine within", then you have become your own god.

These gods provoke the one true God to anger.

So, what is your passion? What person or thing consumes you and your time? What distracts you from spending regular time reading the Bible and communing with God? What ever it is, it is your god.

Talk, Talk, Talk by Dr. Suess

Health Care Reform Rhetoric

The story has changed so many times you don't know truth from fiction anymore.

Mental Insecticide by Dr. Suess

The Lindbergh Quarter by Dr. Suess

This could also be renamed to be the Obama quarter when it comes to health care reform. Many would rather stick their heads in the sand and not try to understand or know what is coming down the pike and those who want it passed so badly would be happier if we all did just what this bird is doing.

I don't believe God expects trust in Him to look like this. He expects us to have our eyes and ears open and to be aware of what is going on and do our part to make it right and when we have done that, we are to trust Him with the outcome be it good or bad from our point of view. He works ALL things according to the counsel of His own will. Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Devotional: As An Eagle...

As an Eagle...

By Marsha Iddings

Deut. 32: 11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

 This verses continues the thoughts in the previous verse about God's loving care and instruction of His people. It just uses different metaphors. I did a little research on eagles in preparation for this devotional.

Both parent eagles share in raising the young. The female does most of the work, however. During the first four weeks one or both of the parents brood the young to keep them warm in cool weather and they spread their wings out over them to keep them cool in hot weather.

 The babies sometimes poop in the nest, food scraps fall in the nest too and after a while it gets goopy, dirty and stinky. Eagles don't clean their nest. Instead they just add more nesting material to cover up the mess.

 The babies practice flapping their wings for weeks before they try to fly for the first time.  When it's time for the babies to learn to fly, the parents encourage them by flying around the nest carrying food to entice them to try to fly.

 There are several words in this verse that I looked up in the Hebrew lexicon. The phrase "stirreth up" carries the idea of waking up. In the context of this verse perhaps it is saying she is waking up her self and her babies. It would be similar to us saying that the noise woke the whole house. So, the eagle is stirring up her nest.

 The next word I looked up was "fluttereth". The Hebrew meaning is to brood. So the verse is saying that she is brooding her young, keeping them protected.

 It says she "spread aboad her wings". That's self-explanatory. She spread her wings out most likely to shade the babies from the scorching sun.

 The next phrase is where I was puzzled. It says she "taketh them, beareth them on her wings: " I read one website that was expounding on this verse and they tried to make a case that when the babies learn to fly, if they falter, she swoops up under them and catches them on her wings. While that sounds nice, from the research I did, there is nothing that says anyone has ever observed this behavior. Since this whole verse is a figure of speech to show God's care for His people, I have to think that since this wasn't meant as a study of eagle parenting habits, that Moses was taking poetic license to make his point about how God "carried" His people through the wilderness.

God cares for us in the same way and better than the eagle does for its young.  I am reminded of another verse in Isaiah 40:31 that says, "  But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."  I have had times in my life when I was pushed beyond my limits and God gave me the strengh to carry on in spite of a lack of rest and overwhelming stress.

Wait on His care and provision. Remember the eagle and know that God cares for you.

 

--
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