Did you know?

http://www.biblebelievers.com/jmelton/Halloween.html

SHOULD CHRISTIANS OBSERVE HALLOWEEN?
The Origin of Halloween

The idea of observing October 31st as a holiday originated with the ancient Celtic priests, called "Druids", around 300 B.C. The Druids lived in the area between Great Britain and Germany. Their new year began on November 1st, so October 31st was set aside to worship their god, Samhain, the god of the dead. So October 31st was the Celtic New Year's Eve, the time for their Festival of Death.

The Druids believed that Samhain gathered all the souls of the past year's dead on this night. These souls had been confined to the bodies of various animals to atone for their sins. Animal sacrifices and even human sacrifices were carried out , usually in forests. This practice was observed until around 61 A.D. when it was outlawed by the Romans. However, some animal sacrifices were still practiced as late as 400 A.D.

The Druids taught that the spirit world was closer to the earth on this night than at any other time, and that "the gods" would even appear on this night to play tricks on people.

Pope Bonoface III, in the seventh century, set aside May 13th as "All Saints Day" or "All Hallows Day" as a time for Roman Catholics to honor all known dead saints. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved the date to November 1st which conveniently merged "All Hallows Day" and "All Hallows Eve" with the Celtic New Year and the Festival of Samhain.
This custom wasn't much observed in America until the 1840's when large numbers of immigrants came over from Ireland and Scotland.

The Pagan Customs and Characters

Halloween is filled with all sorts of pagan characters and customs that Christians need to avoid.
The black cat, for example, was believed by the Druids to be evil spirit friends of witches, and even witches themselves. These cats were often kept in wicker cages and burned in animal sacrifices.

Witches are worshipers of Satan, and they are an abomination to God (Exo. 22:18; Deu. 18:10-11). Why would a God-fearing Christian want to dress-up their child like something that God hates?

Scary masks were worn by the Celts to scare away evil spirits. The jack-o-lantern was used for the same purpose, although a turnip was originally used.

What the world thinks of as "ghosts" are not the spirits of dead people, but rather EVIL spirits which we are warned about in the Bible (Lev. 19:31; 20:27; II Kgs. 23:24; Mat. 10:1; Mar. 3:11; Acts 8:7; Rev. 16:13). Why would a Christian want to decorate their home with such wickedness? Does God want you to dress your child up like an evil spirit?

Even the orange and black colors of Halloween have a wicked origin. At the Druid Festival of Death for Samhain huge bon fires were used for offering human and animal sacrifices. So the colors of the night were orange flames glowing in the dark.

Trick-or-treating finds it's origin in the custom of peasants going house to house begging for money to purchase necessities for a feast for Muck Olla, the Druid sun god. A blessing was promised to generous givers, while threats were often made to those who were stingy.

Apple bobbing probably comes from the Roman festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. This festival was merged with the festival of Samhain after Rome conquered Britain. In honor of Samhain, subjects were forced to bob for apples in boiling hot water. Those who lived through this ordeal were set free.

Friend, Halloween is Satanic! You may pretend that it's a harmless game for kids, but in reality it represents paganism, Satanism, human sacrifice, torture, rape, murder, idolatry, witchcraft, and spiritualism! Did you know that October 31st is considered by Satanists to be their most important day of the year? Friend, WAKE UP! Don't honor the Devil! Honor God instead by refusing to observe Halloween this year. The Lord Jesus Christ wouldn't dress innocent children up like the devils of Hell and march them around town, so why should you? Are you a TRUE follower of Jesus Christ? Then SKIP Halloween this year and tell others to do likewise!

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" (I Tim. 4:1) "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Eph. 5:11) "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." (Rom. 13:12)

Have You Been Saved?

Jesus Christ came into this world to lay down His sinless life for YOU--to pay for your sins because you couldn't. Jesus is your only hope for salvation. Only by receiving Him as your Saviour can you enter the gates of Heaven. There is no other way. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

The Lord Jesus Christ has come and PAID for your sins by shedding His own Blood on Calvary. By receiving Him as your Saviour, you can be WASHED from all your sins in His precious Blood (Rev. 1:5; Col. 1:14; Acts 20:28; I Pet. 1:18-19). Notice these important words from Romans 5:8-9: "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."

Jesus PAID your way to Heaven for you! By receiving Him as your Saviour, you will be receiving God's ONLY means of Salvation. Are you willing to forsake YOUR righteousness and receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your ONLY HOPE for Salvation? Romans 10:13 says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:9 says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Are you willing to forsake your own righteousness, and ask Jesus Christ to save you? Why not pray right now and ask the Lord to come into your heart and cleanse you from all sin. He will save you just as He promised.
Copyright © 1999 James L. Melton

9 months now.

Here are a few pics that I took of her 9 month birthday!

Chunky Monkey

Miss D is sitting amongst her pile of paper and books again. What a busy little girl she is. My brother and his wife came over for a visit this weekend. We had a great time with them. Thanks for making the trip down Kevin and Jen. Now, when I say that WE had a great visit that's what I mean... Miss D on the other hand, decided that she wanted to wake up after 3 hours of sleep. I fed her, then tried to put her back to bed. Well...1 hour later she was ok with that. Then I heard crying at 4:45am. I go in and she thinks it is time to wake up. She was all ready to get down on the floor and start playing with her toys. I had other plans! I fed her again and put her back to bed. Then she woke up at her normal time of 7am. That night gave me an all to familiar taste of what it was like to have a newborn. I was SO tired in the morning. I should have told the story of the night before as a lead in to this story.... Well here is goes... and beware if you have a uneasy stomach don't read on. Saturday evening was going normal. I had feed Miss D her dinner and then we were getting ready to go over to our neighbors house for dinner and to hear their daughter Sarah share about her trip to China. Miss D was her normal self... happy in the evenings. So we head out. Eva is so happy to see Miss D and gives me a break and takes her to play. After a little while Miss D starts to get grumpy. I go to the rescue and put her on my lap for a while. Greg sets up the pack and play so that we can stay for dinner while Miss D goes to sleep. I go into their room and start to feed Miss D. All is going normally... done with one side and I burped her. I move to the other side to finish her off and she makes this choking noise. I sat her up and burped her and then out comes the mother load. She was vomiting.... not just spit up either... FULL ON VOMIT. I was frozen.. what do I do? Here it comes again... and again and again. Four times in all. I was covered and so was she. Note the color of the font and you will be right there with me. Her blanket had chunks all over it and so did our neighbors bed. Just a little got on the bed... but still it is their bed and someone just puked on it. I gathered her up and put her in their bathroom. I tried to get Mr D's attention, but he was in the kitchen. I didn't want to exit the room because people were eating dinner and if they saw what covered my shirt and pants their dinner would have been ruined. Sarah saw my deer in the headlight look and got Mr D for me. He came into the room to find me and Miss D covered in her dinner. We striped her down and put a blanket around her to take her home. Thankfully we were next door and didn't have to go far. We got her home and then both got changed. I thought that I would feed her just a little bit to settle her tummy. Bad idea because what was left in there came up along with what I had just fed her. So, we both headed to the tub to get cleaned up. After all of that she went to bed at 9:30pm and slept all night until morning. What a nightmare. Thanks to Shelia for coming to the rescue. After 6 kids it was nothing to her to have a little puke on her bed. We felt so bad to just puke and then leave. But, they are the best most understanding people we could have living next door to us. So that was the inside scoop into my weekend.

Yesterday...

Is anyone else having photo posting problems? I've tried for 2 days now to post a photo and the page keeps failing????? I'm frustrated, because I have a cutest pic from yesterday and I want to SHARE IT!!!!

Whole Heart Faith

I'm sitting here at the desk with Aly at my feet cleaning out both of the bottom drawers. There are envelopes and paper scattered about. You can always tell where she has been because she leaves a trail of toys. She is a bit like me when it comes to that. I'm still trying to learn to pick up after myself. As I am still learning, I can be an example for her. Being an example is what we talked about today at BSF. Do we have to obey the 10 commandments if we are saved by faith and not by our works. One would think that "well I can do whatever I want, God will forgive me." I'm sure that your conscience in telling you that isn't true. The truth according to Romans 3:31. "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary we establish the law." We need to uphold the 10 commandments and live according to the law to be an example to other people who need Jesus. They will see through our lives that we are trying to live a life pleasing to God and that Jesus can live through us. Therefore our choices are His choices. We need to have a faith that upholds the law. God knows what is best for us and that is why we have to follow the law and obey Him. People may have faith in doctors, finances or anything else that is of the world. Where the challenge lies in having faith in God. Having faith that he knows what is best for us and that we can find the answers to life's questions in HIS WORD. Now Aly is standing on to my chair... looking at me like HELLO aren't you going to play with me? Wait... no I just found a pile of paper to play in... no wait I'm over that. Play with me!

time to think...

Things to ponder
1. A clamshell can make a pearl.
2. When a baby is born it's skull bones overlap to go through the birth canal.
3. If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?
4. If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?
5. A plant can grow from a dry seed.
6. Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up ATM?
7. If corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?
8. Why is it that when you are driving and looking for an address, you turn the radio down?
9. Why do most people not like their own name?
10. I'm all out of things to ponder...

It's a

Lovely Day
Lovely Day
Lovely Day
Lovely Day!

So True

WHY GO TO CHURCH?
A Church-goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So I think I'm wasting time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals, but for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to nothing .... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment! REMEMBER: FAITH MAKES THINGS POSSIBLE...NOT EASY !

Author- Unknown

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." Romans 1:16-17

I'm a big kid, look what I can do.

When did she think that it was a great idea to pull herself up in her crib. She sure thinks that she is hot stuff though. It happened about a week ago. I put her down for her nap. Just like clockwork... on the tummy with her blanket over her back. She reaches back for me to give her the corner of her blanket, so she can hold it in her hand as she puts her thumb in her mouth. I turn on her music and walk out of the room. Ahhhhh.... naptime. Now mommy can do as much a possible in about 2 hours. Time passes and I hear some noises upstairs. No crying, just talking noises. They go on and on without the normal break of a few sucks on the trusty thumb. On and on and on and on. I go to investigate. What do I find? My BABY has pulled herself up to standing in her crib. No, No, No I think, not yet. Why does this little girl have to be to big for her size 3 britches? Momma I want to get 4 teeth, momma I want you to walk me around, momma I want to pull myself up in my crib. Did I do this to her? Have I pushed her to fast? I have to say I think that she is just a go getter and I'm learning this about her early, so I have time to adjust. A note to all. Alyenna is a doer. She is not passive, she is an investigator. She is very curious. She has a gentle spirit, but is a turning into a little jabber box. When I was little I can remember my mom having to tell me to "Say Hello". I don't think that I will ever have to do that! It is just amazing what God can create in a human being. I'm sure that she will be teaching me lessons about being BOLD. I pray for her to use her BOLDNESS for the kingdom of God. There is so much I'm learning about this little girl... but could we figure out what color her eyes are? No, she is keeping that one to herself.

Newborn To Nearly 9 Months

Birth
1 month
2months
3 months

4 months
5 months

6 months
7 months
8 months
Newborn to almost 9 months... where did the time go? Here is the last nine months in pictures.

Weeds.....everywhere!

When you have a view like this it is awesome. But to pull weeds in a huge yard like ours is a bit overwhelming! I filled the wheelbarrow with weeds, grass and dirt in like 15 minutes. Am I done? Not hardly! There are 1000's of tiny seedlings that have just germinated and are just begging to have a wonderful life over the winter and be a headache for me in the spring. Why is it that freshly weeded dirt looks so nice? We are having a wedding reception in our front yard in July and I'm really excited for that. What a wonderful thing to be able to share with our neighbors. Thanks to them for letting us be a part of the wonderful day to come. I promise to have the yard in tip top shape! Lunch is over and back outside.

A morning to remember.

This morning my little sweet baby woke up at 6am. Which is an hour earlier than normal. She didn't go back to sleep and I could tell that she was standing up in her crib from the noises that she was making. It was still dark, so I went in and picked her up. We sat down in the glider and she laid her sweet head on my chest and snuggled up with me. I had her in her cozy pink fleece blanket and she had the corner in her hand sucking her tiny little thumb. I sat there with my baby rocking in the glider in the dark remembering her as an infant. When laying on my was all that she could do. I compare that to now when having her snuggle up on me is a special once in a while treat. She is an on the go active baby who rarely takes a minute to take a break. When she wants to go to bed she would rather be put down in her bed than fall asleep in my arms. We trained her to be that way from the beginning so that she would have any issues falling asleep on her own. So this morning was a wonderful gift from God. Thank you Lord for my healthy baby. I sat there with tears of love and gratitude for the gift that I have received to be a mother. I thought of the times that I have left to rock her in my arms and how they are numbered. She has grown so fast and I will remember this morning forever. It was different than the other times that I have snuggled with her. Those other times it has been because she needed help falling asleep. Today she never fell asleep. She snuggled in my arms with her thumb in her mouth and her foot dangling off the edge of the glider running her toe across the cushion. She is just like her daddy...always having to fidget. She is in bed now and there are times during the day when I can't wait for a quiet time alone. But when she is in bed, I long for the time when she is awake and I can hold her and give her kisses. It is hard to comprehend that Jesus loves me so much more than I love her. Thank you Jesus for understanding my shortcomings and loving despite my sin.

Thank you BSF.

Romans 3:5-8

What argument is Paul disproving in verses 5-8?

God is just in giving us His wrath. We can try and try to be good on our own, but without Him we make mistakes. Even when we think that we are being genuine, hidden in our hearts there are sinful motives.

Romans 3:1-2

What advantage is it to you to have the Bible, the Word of God?

To get to know the heart of God. The Bible is His word and when I read it He is speaking directly to me. It is the living word is always changing in meaning and application. Who am I to have such a treasured gift? To be able to read and know the heart of God through His word is like food for the hungry.

Thank you Lord for giving me your word that I may learn from it through my Bible Study of Romans. Thank you BSF.

http://www.biblestudyfellowship.com/

Custom made to wear jewelry

Making jewelry is my newest obbession. I'm making the pieces for the Lady Bug Bizarre. I need to figure out what each item that I've made is going to cost though. It is a fun hobby because I can wear the stuff that I make... that is if Aly doesn't pull on the earrings or on the necklace. I can also custom make something to match what I'm wearing for that day. My mother-in-law got me hooked when I stayed with them for a few days when my hubby was hunting. Today I went to a bead show and dropped a couple dollars on beads... and when I say a couple dollars it is because I don't want to say the amount out loud. For fear that my hubby might say " you better sell a lot of jewelry to make up for all the money that you are spending on beads my love". I added in the my love part to make it sound like he is saying that out of love for me and not that he is worried that I'm spending all his hard earned money on beads. But I do have to say that I love making jewelry! I should put some pics on here of my newest projects. Maybe soon.

To Blog or not to Blog?

As my friend Steph put it on her blog... and I choose Blog. This is my 1st blog ever so here it goes. Today I went to my friend Martta's little girl Gracie's 2nd birthday party... what the Disney Princess party? Martta planned the party to be a Princess party and almost all the gifts that Gracie got were princess orriented. I hope that was the plan because I was part of the problem. I gave her a Disney toy cell phone with interchangeable faceplates... a very hip thing that a 2 year old needs. I also gave her a Strawberry Shortcake Doll. I 'm so glad that the toys I had when I was little are coming back. I had Lemon Meringue and to this day she still smells like Lemon. Makes you wonder what sort of freak smell odorizer that they put in the doll so that is smells 20 years later. Must be like a twinkie... a shelf life of years and years. When Alyenna has her 1st birthday I'm skipping the theme party and hoping the gifts that are brought for her are all different things... more fun that way. Do I even have a say... for now I do.
Here is my dear baby being a Bully to her cuz Rachelle. They are 16 days apart and poor Rachelle is getting mowed over. She can be a lover too. Cute as a button I might add.