The road to Emmaus...

The Journey to Emmaus

As born again Christians, we don't believe we can get to heaven by being a good person. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23. It is not by the acts we do, attendance in church, money we tithe, reading the Bible, or just believing that there is a God. These can be religious works whereby man is trying to attempt to reach God. I rarely use the word "hate", but I really do hate the word "religious". My Christianity is based on faith and the truth we find in the Bible, not man-made doctrines or practices. We must first realize our sinful nature and our desperate need of a Savior, a state of almost brokenness in many cases.

That's how it was for me. I had injured my back about six years ago, and cried every night from the intense sciatic pain. I had tried everything including chiropractic, physical therapy, epidurals, cortisone shots, and laser therapy...just to name a few. Then one night after everyone had gone to bed, when looking through a few books that I had sat down with, it seemed that every book had a word or sentence that I had heard earlier that day at a homeschool mom's luncheon. The "coincidences" kept increasing to the point that I felt that the Lord was sitting right next to me and had something to say. The final moment for me was involving the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus (found in Luke 24). I was to substitute for Sunday School this coming Sunday, teaching this story. This was a first for me, and I had no knowledge of this story, or many other stories in the Bible for that matter. We were attending an Episcopal church at the time. But there, in one of the books I had chosen to flip through that night, was a story about Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

I found myself on my knees surrendering my life to Him, asking for His help, that I could no longer handle it (the pain) on my own. No one had given me a certain "salvation prayer" to say, this was just how it happened for me, like little "bells" that kept going off all day at that luncheon, making mental notes to remember certain words and phrases. One of the women who spoke at the luncheon did say, however, that if you did not know Jesus as your personal savior, to seek someone out who does.

Now, the fruit of that moment over these five and a half years has been the DESIRE to go to church, to read the Bible, to give freely of our money, the desire to fellowship with other believers at a church, etc.

Accept the gift of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for all of your sins (past, present, and future sins) and receive Him as your Savior. Our part is sincerity and longing for His presence. The rest is a work of the Holy Spirit to transform us. It's not a complicated thing, simple really. The Lord has done the work for us...we only need to sincerely receive Him. If you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please turn to Him. You will never regret it...He will enter your heart and bring unspeakable joy and peace even in the face of trials. The Bible does not promise believers to have an easy life; on the contrary, it says that believers will be persecuted and scoffed at. But our joy overrides the temporal pleasures of the world and gives us strength to face all things with hope and trust in His providential plan for our lives.

May the Lord bless your day abundantly!
Lisa

Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival

Sorry it's been a while. Busy week! Last Saturday we all went to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival in upstate New York. Many ravelers were watching the weather forecast, holding their breaths, but thankfully, Saturday held out. There was no snow accumulation and the weather was just nice and brisk. Nothing some hand knit wool socks couldn't handle! We were sorry that we didn't book a hotel months ago, so could only go up for the day. But we had such a great time that we already booked for next year's weekend.

There was so much to see; more than we could see in one day. We never even got to see the sheep dog trials and we couldn't get near the chicken pot pie booth. But I have a brilliant idea for next year. There was no pot pie line when we first got to the festival, sooooooo......I'm going to bring one of those silver hot/cold bags with me, we'll grab a couple of pot pies early in the morning and keep them nice and warm until we're ready to have lunch. Brilliant, right?

So, what did I get? A beautifully soft skein of bamboo and silk in this gorgeous chocolaty rose colorway. Too soft. I got some lovely golden fingering weight for a shawl for my mom. For the splurge...I got an Ashford Kiwi wheel. They let me test it out and it's so much fun. E. got a drop spindle and we got some fiber to start us out.

And then, there were the impulse items. Two absolutely adorable Lionhead bunnies. A male and a female. We knew we were headed toward some more animals someday and since alpacas are so incredibly expensive, bunnies seem like a good start. They're tiny, only 2 1/2 months and 3 1/2 months. They have a mane of fiber behind their ears which gives them this great "lion" face. We're undecided yet if we want to breed them, so they are in separate cages for the time being. We have yet to put them in the garage. I am seriously leaning toward litter training them and keeping them as inside pets. Don't think we would breed them then. For now, we'll all enjoying these two little fuzzballs who happily and calmly sit on your chest for hours just enjoying being loved on. I can't imagine how much fiber you would have to save up in order to spin enough to actually make something...they're just too cute anyway. Maybe if these go well, by next year, we'll get a great big Angora.

May the Lord bless your day abundantly!
Lisa

Dinner games...

The Andy Griffith Show

Dinner in our home is no relaxing matter. We don't usually chat leisurely as we dine. There are always games to be played. It began years ago with the Doctor's Cat. The doctor's cat is an adorable cat; the doctor's cat is an adorable, bewildering cat...and it goes on until z. When the little ones were small they were only asked to do their letter and not everybody else's. We have also had some grown-up visitors who would rather not try to remember all the others either. We let them slide, they're guests after all.

Another game is Easy, Medium, Hard. Little slips of paper are given out with one of these three options and the person to your left gets to ask you a "hard" question, etc. We usually decide on a topic beforehand or use an Usborne science book, or history one.

Then, there's Movie Lines. This seems to be everyone's favorite. We don't really watch regular television, but we do love family movies. So one person starts and says a line and everyone has to guess which movie it's from. Endless possibilities.

S came up with a good new one last night. You mix up the order of the syllables of a word and everyone guesses the word. Example: ure nat would be nature. Very challenging. Particularly for Ruby who we believe has some auditory processing problems.

Then we played a few rounds of Actor's Lines. Someone names a movie character and you have to come up with most creative line from that person. Someone is named the judge for that round. You can either win on accent, creative line or both. Well, last night's was Barney Fife. There was an episode where Barney was buying a used car at a "too good to be true" price. My line was, "Now, Andy, this car was kept in a garage and only driven out to church by a little ol' lady!!!" in the very familiar Barney Fife nervous drawl. I won. Then hubby says, "But that's not fair! You naturally sound like Barney Fife." Really. Huh.

The funny thing about it is that I was not terribly insulted by the comparison. What a quirky family we have. Have some fun with yours. Eat dinner together. Laugh a lot. Share together. Be cheerful (a much more biblical outward expression rather than the inward goals of "being positive").

May the Lord bless your day abundantly!
Lisa