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They are fast workers, Connie. Sometimes you hear horror stories of fixes taking months and months! or contractors starting and then never finishing. Praise the Lord yours worked fast!
Gorgeous summer-like day today. Went to the nursery and looked at some things I want to go into my new beds. Wade is working on a raised veg bed for me, high up than the last ones. He's taking wood out of the woods behind the house and filling in the bottom, lining the bottom with cardboard and then he'll line the wood with cardboard before putting in the fill dirt, compost, and sphagnum mulch. Hopefully the garden will do well this year. We aren't planting a lot, but stuff that we know will grow for us and we like - like purple okra! LOL!, zucchini, tomatoes, and some peppers. Lettuces didn't do well. We do have some collards that we need to cook up, but it took awhile for them to produce enough to have to cook up!0 -
😭 Got home from this latest trip out of town to discover the snow all melted and my raised strawberry bed broken. My husband fessed up that he must've run into it when he was plowing this winter and has promised to fix it0
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Oh...hopefully it didn't hurt your strawberry plants! That would be a shame.
This week the contractors are supposed to start on the outside. They can't do it in the rain...right now it isn't raining, but might this evening. I'm not sure what they will do. I'm sure they will be here or they would have contacted me.0 -
Wade is trying to get the roof fixed over our back porch and the hallway, entryway area but we've had rain too, so he hasn't been able to take care of it. It's a fairly flat roof that needs pretty much everything other than the rafters! LOL! We had a bunch of rain this morning and I think it's supposed to rain later this afternoon. I heard the thunder at around 6:30 this morning and ended up just getting up. All of the bad weather in Georgia and Mississippi/Louisianna is a bit scary! We don't really have a good place to hide in this house. In our Hickory house, Mom's bedroom was butted up against the back yard (underground) and she had her bathroom on the other side, so she had no outside windows - here, the hallway where the bedrooms and bathroom are is the only place without windows! Lord willing we will never have to be concerned about that - although hurricanes are an issue, but you have time to leave town for those! LOL!
Y'all have an awesome evening. Love you0 -
We finally got our carpeting on Monday, so we're almost done with updating the main area of the house. Hardwood floors refinished, walls and ceilings painted, hearth re-tiled and now carpet. I have 3 cornice boards to recover and we'll be done - for now0
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Woohoo, Cindy! Feels good to be at the finish line I bet!
Wow, it turned chilly on me. I was ready to put up the winter clothes but am in a sweatshirt again today!0 -
Here is a blog post that my pastor wrote concerning Jesus' prayer in the Garden. It isn't something that very many pastors are preaching these days, but you will see after you read it why we believe that Jesus didn't go to the Garden to plea for deliverance from the cross, but rather so that He would not die in the Garden so that He could make it to the cross.
03/29/18 JESUS PRAYER IN GETHSEMANE
(notes from my video)
Not the same message I recently posted about Jesus Was Heard, though it deals with the same subject and there is overlap, but it is a totally different approach and message.
Jesus' Prayer in Gethsemane, the prayer that Jesus asked the Father to let This Cup Pass From Me.
A lot of people say that the cup was His death on the cross.
Jesus was asking to be delivered from death, but not death on the cross, but rather, He was asking to be delivered from death in the Garden, which would have kept Him from death on the cross.
We know that He got His prayer answered, therefore the Father granted His request, whatever it was. If His request was to NOT die on the cross, then Jesus did not get His request.
You may respond by saying that Jesus got His OTHER request, which was, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done." But the Bible says that the Father always heard Jesus' prayers.
The NEVERTHELESS prayer was a secondary prayer, based on what Jesus did not know, whereas His LET THIS CUP prayer was based on what He did know. He knew it was the Father's will for Him to die on the cross.
Jn 8:29; Jn 11:41-42
Jesus, and later John said, that God will hear, grant our requests
Mt 21:22; Lk 11:9-13; Jn 14:12-14; Jn 15:7-10; 1 Jn 3:21-24 ; 1 Jn 5:14-15
We may say that we don't always get our prayer requests granted. Maybe we are not meeting the conditions.
There are conditions to having our prayers answered.
BUT JESUS MET ALL CONDITIONS. He always obeyed the Father.
Jesus and the Father were always of one mind; They always agreed. They never disagreed, EVER.
Jesus had preached throughout His ministry that He would go to Jerusalem , suffer, be crucified dead and be raised from the dead [Mt. 20:17-19, 26:2, 12, 18, 23-24, 26-29, 31-32; Mk 10:32-34, 14:21, 27; Lk 9:51; 18:31-33; Jn 12:7 (these aren't all the places that tell us Jesus knew and was ready for His death on the cross)]. He had said this just before He went to the Garden to pray.
So, why did Jesus go to the Garden? What was He wanting to do in the Garden?
Notice, JUST PRIOR TO His arrest, His trial, His crucifixion, Jesus went to the Garden. He took His disciples with Him and took three of them with Him into the Garden.
You may be thinking, "He went to the Garden to pray that He might escape the cross." NO, NO, there is nothing in the entire passage that says He went to the Garden in order to ask that He should not die on the cross. Not one thing even implies such a thing.
We can get an idea of why He went to the Garden from Heb 4 and 5, since that gives us more information about His praying in the Garden than any other passage.
Heb 4:14-16 14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
The High Priest of Israel would make blood sacrifice for the sins of the people, but first he would make sacrifice for his own sins.
Jesus made sacrifice for us, as the High Priest, and also as the Sacrifice and also as the Altar. Jesus did not make sacrifice for His own sins because Jesus did not have sin. He was a man, He was human, but He was without sin. This is fundamental to the Christian faith.
IN Heb 5 (there is no chapter 15), in 5:1-3 we are told that the high priest made sacrifice for himself and for the people of Israel.
Heb 5:5-7 tells us that Jesus was chosen to be High Priest. Jesus was not part of the Levitical priesthood, He was not part of the Aaronic priesthood. Jesus was chosen aside from natural lineage.
In verse 6 we see that Jesus was likened to Melchizedek, who predated the Aaronic priesthood. There is no record of the father or mother or the origin or the destiny of Melchizedek. Likewise, Jesus had not beginning, no ending.
In verse 7 we are told that Jesus, during His earthly ministry, offered prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears to Him Who was able to save Him.
Heb 5:7 (NKJV) who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,
This passage aligns this prayer with His High Priestly office. Jesus is High Priest, without beginning and without end.
Jesus was heard when He prayed to be saved from death. BUT WHAT DEATH?
People say that He was in the Garden praying because of the burden of carrying the sins of the world or the fear of dying on the cross. IT DOES NOT SAY THIS.
This passage does say He was praying;
it does put Him in His High Priestly office;
it does say that His prayer was heard.
If His prayer was to escape the cross, then His prayer was not heard, because He did not escape the cross. This contradicts the passage.
People say He went to the Garden because He was burdened with the prospect of being the sin-bearer, the prospect of death on the cross.
I believe He was burdened, as the sin-bearer, as the High Priest, with the spiritual needs of the disciples, of the Church. He went to the Garden to pray for His followers. He could have also been praying for Himself to fulfill all that the Father wanted Him to in His death, but He did not go to the Garden to pray for deliverance from the cross, and He did not turn from the cross while praying in the Garden. IT DOES NOT SAY THAT.
You may ask where I get this.
Well, that is what High Priests do. They pray for the people.
That is what loving parents and family members do. They pray for loved ones.
Jesus did not go to the Garden to pray for escape from the cross. Where does it say such a thing? It is not said before the Garden. Everything before the Garden was commitment to go to the cross, to do the Father's will, to fulfill His mission. EVERYTHING.
Jesus did not change His mind about His mission while He was praying in the Garden. If He did, then where and when did such a monumental shift take place?
Jesus was at the Garden praying. He had talked to the disciples often, concerning their faith and relationship with Him and His plan to die on the cross and be raised again. They had shown their weakness and failure by backing out from time to time and they had boasted that they would not back out, only to back out.
Jesus was praying for His disciples. He actually told them to pray. He went to pray, and at some point He came to them and found the sleeping. He told them to pray, because He was so wrung out in His prayer battle that He was in great sorrow and on the verge of dying. HE WAS ABOUT TO DIE IN THE GARDEN. They went back to sleep and He went back to prayer.
Jesus returned again to the disciples and was bleeding through the pores of His skin. He was about to die as He battled in the Garden. Again He told the disciples to pray; pray that they would not enter into temptation. His concern was for them, though He was about to die.
As a parent, you know what it is to pray for your child if they are in a drastic situation. You pray more energetically, more vigorously, more emotionally, more determinedly, more sorrowfully for your child than you ever prayed for yourself.
Jesus went to the Garden to pray for His disciples, the Church and for His own ability to finish His sacrificial death. He did not go there to escape the cross.
Jesus did not change His mind, before the Garden, about dying on the cross. He did not change His mind, while in the Garden, about dying on the cross. That would have been disobedience to the Father. That would have been breaking unity with the Father. He and the Father had always been of one mind, one purpose, they always agreed.
If Jesus backed away from the cross, WHERE AND WHEN DID IT HAPPEN?
If Jesus came back to His plan to die on the cross, WHERE AND WHEN DID IT HAPPEN?
Some folks blame His falling away from the eternal plan of God because He was human. NO, it was not just a human frailty to reject the cross, it was a rebellion against the will of the Father, and against His own commitment.
Jesus, as a man, did have weaknesses, infirmities, but He never sinned.
Jesus did not turn from the cross. He did not ask the Father to change His mind, His plan, His only way of salvation. IT DID NOT HAPPEN.
Jesus was in the Garden praying for His disciples, the world, the Church. He did not go to the Garden to get out of going to the cross.
Jesus was not praying in the Garden, and then suddenly decide that He did not want to go to the cross.
However, in His praying He was so spent in supplication, spent in spiritual battle with darkness that He was about to die. It was becoming evident that He might not make it out of the Garden and therefore He would not be able to make the sacrifice for sins.
This is where we see the humanity of Jesus. Not in trying to escape the cross, but in His weakened physical condition it looked like He would not make it to the cross. Though He held on to the cross as long as He could, His life was slipping away.
Jesus was under attack. Satan had always wanted to kill Jesus before the cross, beginning with Herod's decree to kill the infants. Satan wanted to kill Jesus on various occasions and this might be his last opportunity before the cross.
Jesus said He was sorrowful unto death. It was not hyperbole or a cute colloquialism, IT WAS AN APPARENT FACT. He was about to die.
This spiritual battle in the Garden was so violent that angels were sent to strengthen and minister to Jesus. This is why Jesus prayed, Let this cup pass from me, let this hour pass from me.
Mk 14:33-36 33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;
34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.
35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.
If Jesus sought to escape the cross, because of His humanness, He needs to apologize to Peter because when Peter spoke against His death on the cross, Jesus called Peter Satan and reproved Peter for savoring the things of the world rather than the things of God.
If Jesus was turning from the cross in the Garden, He was doing the same thing that Peter did.
Jesus never showed remorse for His "human lapse." Jesus never apologized for calling Peter, "Satan."
JESUS DID NOT TRY TO ESCAPE THE CROSS.
"His prayer was heard, in that He feared."
The Father did not hear Jesus because He feared the cross.
The Father did not save Jesus from death on the cross, because Jesus did not ask to be saved from death on the cross.
The Father saved Him from death in the Garden.
JESUS LEARNED OBEDIENCE... (vs 8-10)
NO. He did not learn to obey the Father about going to the cross because that was never the issue. The passage does not say He learned to be obedient by surrendering to the cross, while in the Garden.
The passage says that He learned obedience.
The Divine nature of the Son of God did not have to learn obedience.
The Divine nature of Jesus always existed, the human nature of Jesus had not always existed.
There is only One Son of God, but the Son of God has two natures. He is Divine and He is human.
The Human nature of the Jesus had to learn obedience.
It is not that the human nature of Jesus had ever been disobedient. He had to learn obedience, even when it would be costly.
Jesus, being on the verge of death, continued to fight against death and tried to reach the cross. But it was becoming more evident that He probably would not make it out of the Garden alive.
Jesus prayed, to the end, that He would survive the Garden, BUT, He realized He was about to die. In His human weakness, in His human infirmity He did not know what was about to happen, and in desperation He cried out one more time, asking that the Father save Him from death in the Garden, NEVERTHELESS, NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE BE DONE.
This is where He learned complete trust. He wanted the Father's will, even if it conflicted with everything He knew and understood concerning His mission. This surrender to the Father concerning the unknown is what perfected Him as the Author of eternal salvation.
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Phew, what a blustery day we are having. I was sitting out on the porch and enjoying the sunshine and wind! LOL!0
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Kim - the blog post went right along the lines of our pastor's sermon this morning. He also mentioned fear and unease in his human form of being separated from the Father for the first time in eternity! .... for OUR sins, taking them upon himself.0
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On the cross He even cried out, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" God hadn't forsaken Him, but the humanity of Jesus as He hung there felt like His Father had turned away. But then He asks the Father to forgive them and He commends His Spirit into the Father's hand. That feeling didn't last very long.
In Morehead City this Friday, the trans crowd is holding some kind of rally. There's no mistake that they chose Good Friday to do this on! This isn't a town where you see a lot of trans or homosexual people, but I have gone into the Walmart bathroom and a couple of "girls" were already in there and they were saying how happy they were that Walmart had trans bathrooms! Ugh! It's not prevalent but I don't think you can go anywhere these days where there isn't even a wee bit of it. How sad! I was thinking about the "girl" who murdered those adults and children at that Christian school - she was once an innocent babe, a cute little kid playing with her toys and friends - then somewhere along the line someone whispered or shouted words of deceitfulness into her ears and she listened! What a waste!
I hope that y'all have an awesome week. You are in my thoughts and prayers.0 -
Has anyone else had problems with pages loading, here? I haven't had issues anywhere else, but this site has been obnoxiously slow!0
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I've had the same problem, Connie. I usually go to another site and then come back to this one rather than just waiting.0
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Connie, I hope that everything is alright in your world. You are in my prayers!
Very sick this week. Sore throat, cough, congestion in my head and fatigue! I think that something like this is going around and I somehow got in the way of it! God is good and I keep functioning, but definitely not at peak! Hope y'all are doing alright!0 -
All healthy here, Kim. Add my prayers to Kim's, Connie. I do hope all is calm in your world.0
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Still quite sick. Wade went to get me some more cough syrup.
So glad y'all are doing well, Cindy!0 -
I pray you're feeling better soon, Kim0
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Thank you! Your prayers a much appreciated.0
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Sorry I haven't been on for a few days. I had to make a trip to Mom's for some business. On the way home I got a call about more business she hasn't taken care of, so we are going to have to go back for a while in a little over a week. I hate.to do it because of the distance,.but I have to take over her bills and business. She isn't going.to like me much, but i think it will be a relief in the long run.
Kim- hope you are feeling better.0 -
I'm in South Carolina on business for a few days (returning Tuesday afternoon). I had the morning off today so I went for a walk. It's very humid here, but it was lovely out this morning0
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I went to see a PA on Saturday and he put me on a Z-pak and wants me to go ahead and do two in a row since I have a history with sinus problems. He didn't say what he thought was wrong (and I didn't take a copy of the sheet you give the receptionist so that might have said) but I think that it's a bacterial sinus infection. After the initial two tablets, my head was already starting to break up and I am coughing less. I didn't take any cough medicine last night or this morning, just a cough drop, so I think I am finally doing better! Praise the Lord!
Connie, we missed you. I kept praying everything was alright. It is so hard when we have to take away some of our parents' independence. Boy howdy, Mom did not want to give up driving, but when the doctor told her that as soon as she was diagnosed with dementia she could no longer drive. She hated it, and wasn't real happy with us either - but as quickly as things changed with her, it soon didn't matter. I praise the Lord that y'all are doing well. You continue in my prayers.
Have fun is SC, Cindy! Just a hop, skip, and jump away from me!
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