Little Bit by Little Bit, Day by Day

Little by little, day by day, sums up how life is lived. Every morning our task is to get out of bed and get back into our daily business and prepare for the random surprise occurrences, the special events, or accidents that come into all our lives.

 

My husband’s nephew has suffered a one auto accident that caused him to lose his left arm and the past week has been a series of visits to him in hospital and wonderings about him and his family’s welfare and how to help them. The family is rallying around him and watching prayerfully. Complications  from bruising, plastic surgery, and possible internal injuries aren’t ascertained completely even now a full week later. We had dinner with some of the family last evening and appreciated that we have each member to hold us up in good times and bad.

 

We just enjoyed  those comforts and blessings and quietly conversed about these things and casual daily doings while we ate meatloaf, mashed potatoes, fresh green snap peas, cooked greens, and fresh salad, and kraut and wienies, with a choice of fresh baked 50/50 wheat bread and blue cornbread, and a payday type cake for desert, some of which the guests brought to make dinner into the banquet it always becomes whenever we get together. It was a serious bounty of plenty and we all were hungry for both the food and togetherness. After a long while of talking at table after dinner we moved to find more comfort in plush chairs and sofas in the living room where we continued our conversations unwilling to part, yet being sated with savory foods and some of us (me as hostess in particular) being  a bit drowsy.

 

Gazing at one of my paintings of cut grapefruits and sea shells my sister-in-law, my husband’s brother’s wife, asked  how I painted something to appear so lifelike as to be able to pluck it off the canvas. That’s a very basic common question that always causes me to ponder how to succinctly convey the entire process in a couple of easy sentences at least some of the method of artistic portrayal. I try to answer according to my perception of the questioner’s level of interest in making the inquiry as we all do with such questionings, no need to teach a seminar from the idle question.

 

But she was genuinely curious and likes my work enough to be proud of the painting I gave her for her living room.  So I just said,  “Little by little, just looking and painting little bit by little bit, day by day.” Of course that didn’t tell too much technically, but she would know more and asked, “Yes, but how do you know what to paint and how it looks, do you have something to go by? Do you take a picture?”  I replied, “Yes, and yes, I take a picture after I study the subject.” I didn’t elaborate. Her interest does mean a lot to me  though and I thanked her for her questions.

 

I woke up this morning thinking of “little bit by little bit, day by day“, and how the important things are so hard to explain in few words to most of us. Writers are gifted with the ability and the rest of us try to break the barriers of understanding to share these passages of common times, surprises, events.  Then I prayed and opened up the bible the Word of God to;

 

 Isaiah 40

King James Version (KJV)

40 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

 

I read through chapter 42  then moved over to other readings in the New Testament, received no earth shattering direct wisdom but the general principles therein, and then I began to appreciate a bit more how it is just  little bit by little bit, day by day, God is training us to observe Him in all things and helping us to see with our eyes and hear with our ears through the power of the Holy Ghost through submission to the Father through the Son when our prayers are tempered and enabled by the Word when we remember to read it.

 

Grapefruit and Lightning Whelk Shells

 

 

Just as the paintings are completed and then become mysterious yet self evident  finished works our lives are an evident witness of God’s creation and perfecting grace that are hard to break down and explain succinctly. It takes little bit by little bit, day by day walking in the Spirit with Jesus.

 

John 13, Jesus Washed His Disciples Feet

I read today John Chapters 13 -14

Yesterday I read;

Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful, 1981, by Alan Paton, South African author

I bought this book from my favourite second hand bookstore. They said that it came from a lady’s estate who had thousands of books. What a gift to posterity! I was able to purchase it for $2.99. and gladly paid.

I had read it with interest in fits and starts as I usually have books of assorted kinds going at once. Books are a comfort and joy and food  for my many jumbled thoughts and concerns. It is joyful whenever I find a book written by someone who has love in his heart as Alan Paton demonstrates with Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful. This book covers the 1952-58 time period beginning in what they call, “The Defiance Campaign” in which they pushed back against some of the apartheid laws such as separate use of public places, places of worship,  transportation, and land occupancy laws.

Here is a photo of pages 234 & 235

page 234

page 235

Many things I’ve read in the book have reminded me of the injustices in our own country’s dealings with our neighbors in our own country as well as the world. The fears of the Afrikaners made them do horrid things through apartheid and of course they committed even worse atrocities against the black and brown peoples with whom they unevenly shared that beautiful land.

To simplify I will say that their justifications for their separate existence laws from the native South Africans and the other brown skinned peoples like the Indians whom they imported into the country for labor to build railroads were made out of arrogance, greed, and Darwinian type genetic racial inequality theories, but mostly FEAR of their superior numbers. The Christians in South Africa of all colors were sifted through the age of White Rule. There where were many Whites who responded to the commands of Jesus Christ to treat their Black and Brown brothers with kindness, many as in this book were ostracized for it.

This book was written in 1981, before the abolition of official Apartheid. Looking backward we can see many things have improved, yet much is still to be done. I think much has to be done in our country too. God cannot be pleased with Christians supporting suppressions of freedoms out of fear when He told us that we are to fear none but God himself. We have a long way to go.  In verse 34 Jesus gives a new commandment.

John 13 Jesus Washes His Disciples Feet and Gives A New Commandment

I meditated upon the act of Jesus washing feet all night long, I dreamed in wonder about it. This morning I got my Bible out to get the unadulterated Word.

Verse 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Do they know? Do we love?

Liberty to the Captives

This is not my home

As beautiful as I think it is, this world is not my home.

If taken to it’s furthest application, the rejection of liberty in man’s government here on earth will lead to the necessary establishment of the beliefs of one or other group of peoples. As a Christian it is tempting to attempt to institute Christianity (which incidentally has no law only grace) as the bar of all law in the United States of America.

  John 18:36  King James Version (KJV)
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

Our Saviour was not the kind of king that the Pharisees and Sadducee and leaders of His people wanted, He came in humbleness in a low estate not the conquering king they wanted. The folly of this is the violation of God’s order of the church age in which “whomsoever believeth” SUBMITS BY GRACE given to Him by God to the commands of Christ. That leaves all others under forced obedience (in effect slaves) to LAW without belief.

Christ fulfills the LAW but He never took away the liberty to reject His Propitiation. Jesus gave clear warnings of the consequences of rejecting so great a sacrifice, but He did not force anyone to believe.

Another folly is to attempt to institute Levitical Judaic law as a broad basis for man’s government so as to leave the New Covenant of Jesus out of man’s government, thereby placing man back under the law that our Saviour fulfilled and replaced with His Propitiation. In what way is that Christian? How could that be considered as giving more opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ of Nazareth?

Rather government without Christ is government without Christ’s commandments and specifically his two greatest;

Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbour as thyself.  40 On these two commandments hang ALL the law and the prophets.”

These two commandments include the ten commandments. What is then different about Christian/Judaic government vs. New Covenant Christian government?

A. The complete absence of Jesus Christ (He is not named in our US Constitution even though Christians ascribe “our Creator” to be Jesus).

B. The Levitical law and the 613 Judaic laws in the Pentateuch which were added by the priesthood onto the Ten Commandments.

C. No grace only law.

D. Enslavement.

Jesus Christ came to give liberty to the captives. His Kingdom is not of this earth.

It is foolish to sidestep into the Law away from Grace.

We have eternal citizenship in heaven if we are believers in Jesus, and we are temporary citizens of the world which we have been told we have to be in but not to be of.

"On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, All Other Ground is Sinking Sand"

Now we are being prepared for yet another weakening of our consciouses as believers in Jesus Christ of Nazareth the Only Begotten Son of God the Way the Truth and the Light the One who gives us eternal life.

Here are articles urging us to vote for Mitt Romney Mormon bishop of the LDS religion which denies our Lord and Savior’s Identity as the perfect Lamb of God. One of the basic facts about the LDS is their revelation that theirs is an “evolving” system of religion. Pay close attention to that profession, it allows further changes in any area of a Mormon’s beliefs, therefore anything they say can be taken back and changed to the opposite as evidenced in the below articles. 
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/campaigns/in-boston-mitt-romney-evolved-in-mormon-leadership-some-churchwomen-say/2011/11/17/gIQAMOoWjN_story.html?hpid=z2

In Boston, Mitt Romney ‘evolved’ in Mormon leadership, some churchwomen say, by Jason Horowitz, Published: November 21, ARLINGTON, Mass.

” Romney’s pilgrim’s progress from tone-deaf enforcer of doctrine to a more mature and tolerant pastor of the feminists in his flock.

Romney, who declined to comment for this article, is now a potential Republican nominee for president. In this election, he has embraced his long and active membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to parry accusations that he lacks consistency and a “core.” But some of the women who witnessed Romney’s tenure as the highest-ranking Mormon authority in Boston, the epicenter of the church’s women’s movement, offer a more nuanced portrait.

“He evolved,” said Barbara Taylor, a former president of Exponent II who went on to serve as personal assistant to Romney in the Massachusetts governor’s office. “He is an entirely different person now.”

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http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mike-huckabee-tells-conservatives-prepare-back-mitt-romney-190511684.html
Mike Huckabee tells conservatives to prepare to back Mitt Romney, by Rachel Rose Hartman | The Ticket

“Huckabee’s comments are the latest indication conservatives are readying one another to “hold their noses” and vote for Romney, who opponents on both sides of the aisle paint as the most moderate major Republican candidate in the 2012 race.”

(I think I need to spit and spew this out of my mouth,  instead of holding my nose and voting for an anti-christ!) 
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Oct 03, 2011
Mitt Romney sits down with Mike Huckabee to flip-flop on abortion
by Kaili Joy Gray
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/03/1022375/-Mitt-Romney-sits-down-with-Mike-Huckabee-to-flip-flop-on-abortion

(Here’s where being an evolving Mormon comes in extremely handy.)

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Here are Huckabee’s own very political words in which he “reserves the right to change his mind” about who he supports. He is a Republican’s Republican first and foremost, and in my humble opinion he will vote for the lesser of two evils and support Romney over Obama. I also see in Huckabee that his political aspirations are far from ended and that he may be positioning for VP? I believe that the choice between Republicans and Democrats is a Hobson’s choice unlike  Huckabee who supports the two party system and is willing to vote for even an anti-christ Mormon to get a Republican elected.

http://kleinonline.wnd.com/audio/huckabee-why-tea-party-should-support-romney/

Investigative Audio “Huckabee: Tea Party may need to support Romney”

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It is revealing how vehemently Mike Huckabee opposes Ron Paul.

Mike Huckabee Bashes Ron Paul And Avoids Iran Question
http://youtu.be/9vTQyOPVJXI 

Here is slanderous statements made on Leno May, 2011, that he made incorrectly framing Ron Paul’s beliefs on traditional Republican hot points.

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Finally look at this 2008 presidential debate footage of Ron Paul and one example of the blatant disrespect.
http://youtu.be/BmagWxsznO8
“The fact everyone that controls the International Banking Cartel, Main Stream Media and Big oil etc. are so fearful of this man is maybe really the first reason you should give him your vote.

Republican Debates 2008″
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No change in Paul’s message other than now he has made it more succinct as in this Face the Nation interview with Bob Schieffer. Paul fields the tough issues that have been used by both parties of our false right left paradigm for the last century. Come out of fear and examine the slogans that have kept our nation at war for the last ten years. Watch some Ron Paul and give him a chance is all I ask, because I think he makes great sense.
http://youtu.be/Ms92g-Gxeho
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All the Republican candidates other than Ron Paul use fear factor to motivate Christians. Fearing terrorists or any other than God is evil.  We should fear God who is able to destroy both the body and the spirit.