Israel – Musings along life's journey

Dear readers, I’m taking a break from the Bible Chaper 8:8’s study. My first actual speaking engagement was Saturday, April 27th. You probably knew about this event from my previous posts and sales page, and I want to share how it went. What a special day straight from heaven it was!

I want to thank LiveMore Ministries for posting these photos on Facebook. My good friend Marta Cooper manned my book table and joyfully, graciously sold six books for me. My friend Pam Fowler was there for what I needed. My friend Delight Christman was an extra blessing, coming from Lowville, gifting me a lovely ceramic votive holder with bluebells on it. The Smithville women provided an excellent breakfast buffet, even offering cereal and oatmeal with both milk and almond milk ‐- along with crumb cake, a breakfast quiche, and fresh fruit ‐- offering something for everyone.

I will share the photos individually and explain them now.

This was from the press release. My husband John and I were each holding a book, I held the original, and John held the book from the second publishing. [He was cropped] By the way, if you have read my book, please leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, or any social network you use.

I was asked periodically during the weeks that led up to this event if I was nervous, anxious, and prepared… well, I was too busy with life to be any of those things! I had a good number of people praying for me, and I thank each one of you for your faithfulness.

I used the press release as a guide to jot some things on cards and put tabs in the proof copy of my book so I’d know where to find things quickly and the major things I wanted to share. I decided which family pictures to take, one of my parents, one of me with my four siblings, one with John and me with our children, and the collage I put together of our nine grandchildren. I also managed to make up a price list for the different versions of my book. This all was challenging with my son Chris’s family coming to stay the weekend because my brother-in-law’s memorial service was also on Saturday. Thank God for Holy Spirit guiding and inspiration! I was blessed to be able to join the family after my speaking engagement.

Tammy Ditch, keyboard Joy Besaw guitar, Heidi and Pam on backup

Tammy, Joy, Pam, and I made a great quartet to lead the women in worship. I was so blessed to be able to help get us all in tune with the Spirit before I spoke. He really blended our harmonies well!

When I shared about “bananas and blessings,” I told about Cathy Connor gifting me with the cowboy boots, my former boss at the motel gifting me with the pants in a bag of cloths she gave me, and the beautiful sweater from the church rummage sale Pam and I attended last weekend. I said, “And this is how the Lord clothes us like the lillies of the field!”

I pray that everyone was as blessed as I was by all that went on at this event. It reminded me that in heaven, we’ll have eternity to spend time with each other. We all left with a small pot of peonies and a Save The Date card for the next LiveMore event. You can check out their Facebook page and keep informed here:

https://www.facebook.com/LiveMoreMinistries?mibextid=ZbWKwL

I leave you with this prayer for Jerusalem from Psalm 122.

Psalm 122:6-9 NLT
Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. [7] O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces. [8] For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “May you have peace.”[Shalom][9] For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.

**Our grand-dog bonding with Grandpa while Dad’s out**

A couple months back while John was still working on the house we’re selling, our son came to town to visit. He had brought his daughter to visit with her girlfriends from her old school and he was was going out for a bit while he waited and asked if his dog Luna could stay with Grandpa. Grandpa was on his cot resting; patted the bed and she jumped up and settled in. That’s an afghan my grandma made from the leftover yarns as she finished afghans for the family. I love the colors! Since this day, each time we visit our son’s family, Luna comes right to Grandpa, and he says she must have bonded well that day he took the picture.

Back to Kris Vallotton’s podcast I was talking about last blog; here’s a couple more things that stuck with me. Kris said, “It’s hard to throw rocks at the castle and then be invited in!” In other words, if you are finding fault, how would you expect to be asked in to speak for God before the leaders? Then he talked about kids navigating jet skis going over the 20mph speed limit coming into shore compared to a ship coming in too fast. You may be able to err without problem by yourself, but it’s a big problem if you do it with a group. In this Christian life, are you a ME or a WE? He related this to our culture fighting the mask and other rules wanting ME to have rights compared to China where everyone just wears the masks because they’re a WE culture.

On another note: I just proofread a new book from Kay Bascom called Jubilee Journey. She shares their journey; her husband was a doctor and they were in Somalia with their sons when the government fell apart. She relates lectures they attended while refugees. They were called “Christianity and Ideologies” presented by a British chemist serving as a Nairobi pastor, and a Cornell-trained agriculture economist. They presented three styles of government: Socialism, Marxism and Capitalism, tearing them down into their structural parts. Then they went to God’s form of government from the Bible. All human governments fail because they don’t take into account human nature. God knows how He made us and His rules show how to make the structure fair and offer forgiveness. Kay shares life stories that led up to them studying the feasts of the LORD and creatively implementing them in their family when they were home in Kansas to help their sons and the others around them get more meaning out of their faith. She also described how they came into understanding of God’s Jubilee and applying it to their lives as well.

I highly recommend Jubilee Journey if you want to know about the history of how the Jewish start of Christ- followers became Christianized; how the church forgot its Jewish roots, and “how now shall we live?” as we come back to the center. Basically, we are not required to keep the Law and the Levitical feasts, but we get to. The Bible is an ongoing, interweaving of Old Testament and New Testament. Kay Bascom is an excellent Bible teacher with many exciting life experiences with first-hand accounts of recent history. This book is very readable, comprehensive, and relevant for this time on earth. This book will be published soon, so keep tabs on it at http://www.olivepresspublisher.org

One Quest International Founders Margaret & Kat — *Kat Kerr with her sister Margaret*
https://www.revealingheaven.com/

This week’s Wednesday Elijah Streams [December 9, 2020] with Kat Kerr was excellent! She talked about the vaccine for COVID-19. God says it’s O.K. to get the vaccine. Stop listening to the scare tactics that it may have a micro-chip in it to track you; don’t believe it can change your DNA; if you have Jesus’ DNA because you belong to him, no one can change it! Kat says she’s not getting the vaccine because she doesn’t need it; if you’ve seen her lately, she looks younger than she did five years ago! [she admitted to being born in 1952 on this episode] As with Moses, she’s spent so much time in God’s glory, she’s got God’s immunity and He is preserving her human body. So if you have solid faith that Jesus is your DNA and your immunity, don’t get the vaccine. If you don’t, you should. For my part, I will get the vaccine to honor my husband. If the man I live with is more comfortable with me getting the shot, I trust God to keep me. Unless God tells me differently, I honor my husband because God speaks through him as my authority. I am learning progressively how to live by faith and not fear! [a lot of it has to do with shutting out the fake news]

From THE CHOSEN PEOPLE Volume xxvi, Issue 10 November 2020 Dr. Mitch Glazer interviewed Joel C. Rosenberg about The Abraham Accords; an update from an expert on the Middle East. These are exciting times to know and understand what’s going on in the Middle East; especially as it pertains to Israel. Joel shared links to the two new websites he’s launched to search genuine news without media bias against Isreal, peace, values we hold. Joel says, “We will provide links to all the really good and credible coverage in the Israeli press, Arab press, and American and other media.” He knows most people don’t have time to sift through the news themselves. Here are the links: All Israel News