Breaking Down the Lies with God's Hammer

Such a beautiful weekend!  I'm fairly certain the weather can't be this nice much longer.  I'm so glad we were able to get a few things done while the weather cooperated.  Still in the demo stage on the main floor and then at the same time trying to get new windows in the upstairs as they are original to the house.  As beautiful as they are, I can actually feel winter breezes over my nose at night.  They are terrible for keeping weather out.  So one window got in.  Four to go.  We managed to find them for almost half the price going over the border and, of course, my husband is installing them, so that makes it a lot more reasonable, too.

This week, I realized I have high expectations for what is going to get done in just a few days remaining, so last night I told my husband that whatever he gets done will be great, no pressure, as otherwise I will find myself super disappointed if my expectations don't get met.

We will still do school this week, but it might just take on a slightly different feel, perhaps more carpentry school?

We also managed to get the cow fence fixed.  That was a huge relief for me as I don't think I realized how much it was getting to me.  I was constantly looking outside to see if a cow was out and it was giving me what I jokingly call, "Post Traumatic Cow Disorder" or PTCD as it is more commonly known!  Sadly, it took away the renovating time, but it had to be done and as of Saturday night, it is back up to 10,000 volts and oddly, no cows were out the rest of the weekend!

Church has become an entirely different experience for us now.  All our children have sat in the service with us for 10 years now and it has always been a bit of a struggle with babies and toddlers, but we've somehow persevered, never exactly knowing when the children make the transition to wiggly toddler to sitting child, but they've all done it and now they all sit in a row quietly through an hour and a half service.  What a different experience it has become for me where I can actually listen to a sermon without taking a child out!  My 7 year old now "takes notes" where each week he writes down what is on the screen.  He's so proud of himself!  The 5 year old copies letters on the paper itself and that is his way of taking notes.  I know some wonder what they are getting out of it, but each week the pastor seems to look right at us and the kids notice that and repeat back to me what they've heard in the service, so I think they know more than we think.  I really prefer sitting with them and in fact love sitting with them.  I sat with my parents when I was a kid and I remember that really fondly. 

The service on Sunday was a good reminder of God's guiding love.   The pastor was saying how so many claim to not know the will of God, but they don't read the Bible, so how can they know His will?  Instead we go to experts or others, but not to God's Word.  I was reading in Jeremiah last week and it confirmed what the pastor was saying.  There are many out there who claim to come in God's name, but in fact they are not Biblically sound.  They are described this way, "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.  The speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord...Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord.  Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them.  So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.'

I was thinking about that.  Sometimes I am the lying prophet....to myself!  Sometimes a lie will enter my own mind, created by the enemy himself, to get me off track, to make me feel badly about myself. I see it in my kids literally all the time.  They will be in the middle of school and my 5 year will say, "I'm too stupid to do this."  Do not listen to the lying prophets!  My son in university will say, "Maybe I can't handle this, Mom.  Maybe I don't have the ability to do this."  Jeremiah goes on and says, "When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest ask you,'What is the burden of the Lord'? you shall say to them, 'You are the burden, and I cast you off, declares the Lord...But the 'burden of the Lord' you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God."  Somehow, the enemy of our souls can use our own words, our own voices, in our own heads to pervert the words of the living God.  I love how he says, "What is the burden of the Lord?  YOU are the burden of the Lord."  WE somehow become our own worst enemy because we don't meditate on what we know is true from Scripture, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that we have the mind of Christ.  Instead we listen to the the lying prophets.  Because nowadays there aren't a lot of prophets walking around, Satan had to come up with different ways to lead us astray.  I'm convinced he uses me to beat myself up!

Fortunately, as always, there is hope.  "Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away?  Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord.  Do I not fill heaven and earth?...Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?  (Jeremiah 23)  So thankfully, we can break the lies with our hammer, the Word of God.  I'm always asking myself and the kids, "What is the lie you are listening to?"  Then, we go from there, breaking the lie down with God's Truth.