Newbie Homesteading and a Proclamation of Liberty

It's been another fast week, but full of blessings and "grace in the wilderness".  It started off with a short text from my neighbour.  This woman is like an angel in my life.  Since I've met her, I can't count how many times she's showed up at my door with a fresh coffee in hand (and recently, fresh-baked-out-of-the-oven muffins!).  My kids call her "the nicest mom they've ever met" and love going over to her place.  Turns out, she was doing some redecorating in her home and purchased some new furniture for her family room, displacing the couches she originally had.  Well, guess who she offered her extra couches to?  Yup - us!  Her text simply asked if we wanted them.  Beautiful, leather couches?  Easy decision.  She admitted a couple of cats had gotten to them before they reached our house, but, uh, that's perfect, we said, "Pre-disastered" or "seasoned" as someone else described them.  We can't have new.  Ever.  Not with the amount of animals we have in and around our house.  She didn't even know we had opened up the living room and were in need of more couch-style sitting space.  It was such a blessing.  Thank you, kind neighbour!!!

I have another new friend in my life who has recently become such a blessing to me as well.  She's another capable woman who just seems to know how to do everything.  I had mentioned to her that I had access to goat's milk (for at least a couple more weeks) and wanted to make goat's milk soap.  She said, "I make soap!"  I have one other friend who does this, but she lives so far away I can't access her superpowers from here, so to find someone else who knew how to do it who is local seemed like such a great blessing, too.  We got together last night and made a huge batch of homemade soap.  It was so amazing.  I absolutely loved it and can't wait to do it again.  Another huge blessing to have capable friends that are willing to share their soap superpowers!

These goats that we have will really only be with us for a very short time.  When we first got them I froze their milk, until I ran out of space in my fridge, and then for the remainder of the time we gave the milk to our puppies and kittens.  They loved it!  But I was procrastinating.  I knew I had this resource of milk and I knew there were a million things I could do with it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do all the research and reading.  Why?  What was keeping me from doing it all?  I really tried to analyze it and came up with a million really good excuses, but I think it came down to being paralyzed by the unknown.  Knowing I was running out of time, I did a really quick youtube search and saw it wasn't as hard as I thought.  The first thing I wanted to try, besides soap, was cheese - "chevre" or goat cream cheese.  You need all sorts of fancy starters and I didn't have any of those, but I found a recipe that didn't need starter, just lemon juice and goat's milk.  In a matter of minutes, no joke, I made my first goat cheese and to my amazement, it looked and tasted just like goat cheese!!!  I had done it!  I was so impressed with myself I basically made announcements all around the house, "I MADE GOAT CHEESE!!!"  No one else was as impressed with me as I was, but it made me feel not just like a pioneer, but like a gourmet chef!  Funnily enough, I tried it the next day, too, and it was a flop, so I'm apparently not an expert yet.  But wow, making things that you thought you could only buy in the store is so incredibly satisfying!

I now have all the ingredients to make the official goat cheese, with starter, etc. so hopefully today it will turn out better.  Here's hoping....

So, was I paralyzed by the unknown or was I paralyzed by fear?  Probably a little bit of both.  I read in Jeremiah 34 this week another amazing passage.  It reminded me of how easily I fall victim to my fears. It said, "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a PROCLAMATION OF LIBERTY to them, that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no on should enslave a Jew, his brother."

It went on, "And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that THEY WOULD NOT BE ENSLAVED AGAIN.  They obeyed and set them free."

Here was the turning point..."BUT AFTERWARD THEY TURNED AROUND AND TOOK BACK the male and female slaves they had set free and brought them into subjection as slaves."

Here is the Lord's response, "But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me.  YOU RECENTLY REPENTED  and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbour , and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name, BUT THEN YOU TURNED AROUND AND PROFANED MY NAME when each of you too back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought" them into subjection to be your slaves.  Therefore, thus says the Lord:.......I proclaim LIBERTY TO THE SWORD....|

I feel like this passage describing the Israelites is such a picture of what we do in our lives all the time.  There is a "proclamation of liberty" that comes from being in Christ.  We are free from slavery, free from fear, free from sin and we know it and we embrace it, we obey, saying, "We won't be enslave again."  But then, just like the Israelites, "afterward", we "turn around and take back our slavery".  It said, even thought they had "recently repented", it didn't matter.  They still "turned around" and "profaned" God's name.  They just loved their slaves so much!  Am I really any different?  I've identified my fears, the things that keep me enslaved and I repent of my slavery.  I obey and give up my slaves and the things I'm enslaved to, but then, I turn around and take all my fears back, even though I have "recently repented".  God's word to this is scary almost, "You turned around and profaned my name.....I proclaim liberty to the sword."  It's as if He's saying, "You want freedom, but you don't really.  You seem to like your slavery, so if that's what you want, that's what you'll get....freedom to be a slave."  And then He leaves us to our devices and to all the harm that comes from being enslaved.  Yikes, I don't want that.

Reading that passage was a great reminder for me of my silly patterns of behaviour.  I read it with the kids and explained to them how we all are like the Israelites in some way.  My own kids promise every morning that they'll be the best kids ever every day, but then they walk away from our time together, even though they've "recently repented" and they go and hit their brother or sister and disobey the very commands I've just given.  What?!  It doesn't seem possible, but we're all just victims of our bad habits.  So for the rest of the day I went around the house saying, "I am making a PROCLAMATION OF LIBERTY!"  as if I was the town crier!  We are free!  We no longer have to be victims of our bad habits.  We have freedom!  The alternative is proclamation of liberty to the sword!  I don't think so.  Not interested in that kind of proclamation.  We prayed again for God's help in our family, in all areas, to all members of our home.....may we not turn around and forget our freedom, our liberty.  We are no longer slaves.