Oh, Daddy! Please Help Me!

(Numbers 11:10-15) (ESV) “ Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

I have to share this with you. I saw myself in that passage of scripture; more times than I care to admit. At first glance, your hand might fly to your mouth, and you might say, “WHAT?!!!!! Moses, what were you thinking?!” At first glance, it does look like the clay asking the potter what the heck He’s making. Oh, but wait. Read the last sentence. Sound familiar? It does to me. Here I am, “Did I ask you to put me here, Lord?” As a matter of fact, I had asked for that very thing. But, that thing was bigger than I was, and moving faster than I could keep up with it. I learned that that’s when it’s time to ask God to take the reins, because I can’t drive the team like I thought I could.

Sometimes we find ourselves stretched to the limit; and, at the end of our rope. Jesus did; and even God has asked the question, “How long?” (Matt. 17:17) (Numbers 14:11, 27) When we get to that point, we need to remember that it is God who equips us to do whatever He’s called us to do. (2Tim. 3:16-17) (Hebrews 13:20-21) (Eph. 4:10-12)

But, let me tell you what God hears when we come before Him like that. (Psalm 103:13-14) “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame;he remembers that we are dust.” God hears, “HELP! I can’t do this alone! I’m wretched! (a disappointment to you, a miserable failure, unworthy, etc.) God loves us with an awesome and unequalled love! When we come to Him like this, He takes us in His arms, holds us until the “storm” is over, and then sets us back on our feet. (Psalm 103:8-12) The quickest way to get that storm to pass, by the way, is to say, like Jesus did, “not my will, but thine be done.” (Matt. 26:39) (Luke 22:42)

The remedy for your situation was worked out in the beginning. And God’s not surprised by this. How wonderful it is when we learn to go to God from beginning to end, at each step in between. Jesus did that too. He separated himself to be alone with God often. (Luke 11:1) (Mark 1:35) (Luke 6:12) Part of what derails us is lack of preparation. We don’t think that far ahead sometimes; and so we don’t do the things we need to do to be prepared for that future. Jesus taught a parable about preparation. (Luke 14:28-29) Don’t despair, God is for you; not against you. Don’t panic; He’s got you covered-as you see in the rest of Moses’ story. Don’t give up; get up. Pick up the pieces, and prepare to go on.

Love you from Café du Mondieu

Something To Think About

For those of you who don’t know…

March 9th-15^th was Endometriosis Awareness Week. This is a condition in which uterine tissue grows outside the uterus, causing pain and problems for a woman.

What you may not know is that there is a similar, but different condition called Adenomyosis. Uterine tissue actually grows into the wall of your uterus when you have this condition. You can experience very severe and painful menstrual cramping, blood clots and prolonged bleeding during menses, difficulty conceiving, and miscarriage. I suffered with all those symptoms from the time I began menstruating until I was 36 years old. At that time, I had a hysterectomy.

By the time I was finally diagnosed with Adenomyosis, I was on my period for virtually the entire month. I became anemic and had to take iron supplements. My doctor also prescribed Provera, to stop my periods until my thyroid condition (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis) was under control. As soon as I stopped taking the Provera, my period came back with a vengeance, and the bleeding wasn’t going to stop. I had no choice but to have the hysterectomy. Thankfully, recovery was quick, and I’m still here, at the age of 63.

While the condition does not cause cancer, women who have Adenomyosis are at higher risk of developing endometrial and thyroid cancers. You may not even know that you have Adenomyosis, as you may not experience any symptoms; especially early on. If you are experiencing any of the symptoms listed at the site, whose link I will post, please contact your OBGYN physician to discuss them. The earlier intervention is made, the better prognosis you will have.

Cleveland Clinic

Love you from Café du Mondieu

Why Did He Have To Die For Me?

Jesus, took our place; essentially, becoming each sinner under judgment. Actually, each human ever born from the beginning to the end. (Col. 3:9-11)

When we come into this world, we are born for the first time. This makes our flesh and blood body, the firstborn. When we accept the Lord, Jesus as our Savior, and are baptized into Him, we are born again. This is our second birth. (Gal. 3: 27-29) When we’re born again, we have crossed over from death to life; eternal life. (John 5:24) Jesus is called our Passover Lamb, because it is His blood that covers us. It’s His blood that God sees when He looks at us; just like He saw the blood on the door posts of the Israelites in Egypt. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1Cor. 6:14)) We don’t have actual doorposts; unless, you count your eyes, ears, heart, mind, and mouth. Everything in the world we deal with passes through these. Yes, you guessed it. The two most important are the heart and mouth. (Proverbs 16:23) (Luke 6:45) That’s why we want to be careful about what we let enter in.

The Israelites ate the Passover Seder, and Jewish folks still do today. We take the sacrament, or celebrate the Eucharist (unleavened bread and wine, or grape juice). Jesus instituted this at the last supper. (Luke 22:18-20) This year, the Jewish Passover will begin on April 5, and end on April 13.

This is one of my favorites; especially at this time of year. As I was listening to it earlier, I though of our Lord. I wondered if He wasn’t homesick, and looking forward, longingly, to that day when we all sit down to supper together. Oh, thank you, Lord, Jesus! Thank you!

Love you from Café du Mondieu

I Desire Mercy; Not Sacrifice

(Leviticus 22:10-23) is the topic of today’s study. In this chapter, there was a man who had cursed and blasphemed the Holy Name of the LORD. The Lord told Moses to have the people bring him out of the camp, lay hands on him, and stone him to death. The punishment for blasphemy is death.

Blasphemy, according to wikipedia is “ an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable.”

An eye for an eye is what the LORD requires in (Leviticus 24:17-21). The Lord says, here, that whomever takes a human life will lose his life. If you kill an animal you will make it right by giving up one of yours to the owner. If you injure someone you will suffer the same injury. The same rule applies for the sojourner as for the native. But, the LORD also has said, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” In (Hosea 6:6) There’s a whole discourse on that, beginning in (Hosea 4:1), where the word of the LORD came through Hosea, saying that the LORD had a controversy with them, over their lack of truth, mercy, and knowledge of Him.

(Proverbs 21:3) tells us “to do justice, or righteousness, and judgment (discernment) is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. In (Micah 6:8), we read it this way: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Some versions us the word, “mercy” instead of kindness. But, really, they are the same. To be kind is to show mercy; and to be merciful is to be kind to someone. The law seeks to punish and exact retribution (such as an eye for an eye). Mercy looks at the heart of the matter; and, mercy looks at both sides. Mercy always seeks peace and empowerment. Jesus came to empower us with the truth, so that we could live and have the kind of lives God intended for us to have. We can do that when we live according to His Word and Way. (Matt. 9:13) (Matt. 12:17) There’s a great example of mercy in (Luke 7:37-48). It’s also a great example of judging correctly, which Jesus told us to do in (John 7:24).

Here’s the reason we need to be born again, and learn from the LORD, and from our Lord, Jesus. “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14) And, of course, that’s why the Father did send His son, Jesus, into the world. (John 3:16-16) What we put to death are the weaknesses, the impulses and tendencies of the flesh nature. Then, we walk more and more securely in our divine nature. That whole 103rd psalm is awesome, by the way.

Love you from Café du Mondieu Copyright by Marina Morrison (aka) Eden Stillwater, March 24, 2023, 12:04 p.m

Saturday Silly-March 25, 2023

Ah, it is National Fix A Leak Week. Today’s the last day, as a matter of fact. I sent my sister a case of Bandaids…because she’s an airhead.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

No, Not Mere Coincidence

(Genesis 7:4) (ESV)“For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”

(Genesis 7:12) “And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”

(Deut. 9:9) “ When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.”

(Psalm 95:10) For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” (Acts 13:18) (Numbers 14:26-35)

(Matt. 4:1-3) “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,…” (Mark 1:12-13) (Luke 4:1-8)

In the Christian world, we’re all observing Lent, which represents the 40 days our Lord, Jesus spent in the wilderness, being tempted by the devil. I found a couple of fasts on the Jewish Calendar, that fall during our time of Lent. One is the Fast of Esther. (Esther 4:16) Remember, Haman was trying to destroy the Jewish people.

The other fast that occurs about this time (Lent) is The Fast of the Firstborn. This fast commemorates the firstborn of Israel who survived Pharaoh’s wrath, because God had the Israelites put blood on their doorposts, so they would not be destroyed when God passed over the land to destroy all the firstborn of Egypt. Neither of these fasts lasts forty days; but they do have to do with salvation for the people.(Exodus 12:12-13) Jesus is the firstborn of God; and, the firstborn of Mary, a human woman. Jesus told Nicodemus that we must all be born again.(John 3:6-8)

(Romans 8:29) “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” When God sent His Son into the world, it was through a flesh and blood woman. In doing this, God was preparing to make it possible for each one of us to become His child. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and are baptized into Him, we become God’s spiritual children. Therefore, we are those many Paul talks about in Romans.

Love you from Café du Mondieu

Women’s History Month

I thought I better do something to recognize a woman or two from history before the month is over. This is a nice break that will give you a chance to catch up on the Bible studies if you need to, as well. Here goes…Did you know…

We’ve all heard of Mary Shelley; right? She wrote the classic gothic novel, Frankenstein. Her mother, was a well-known women’s rights activist, and also a writer. She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women, in 1792. This, according to wikipedia , is “considered to be the earliest and most important piece of work advocating equality for women.” You can read it at https://en.wikisource.org . Isn’t the computer age wonderful?!

Love you from Café du Mondieu

Not Just To Them; But, For Them

(Leviticus 20:10-27) (ESV) These verses deal mainly with sexual offenses and punishment for them. The last verse tells us that necromancers and mediums shall also be put to death.

(Verses 22-26) are the ones I want to focus on. “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.”

If we don’t separate ourselves from the past (traditions, beliefs, attitudes, etc.), including the people in our past who still hold to those beliefs and practice them, we cannot drive out the unclean spirits that come with them. If we don’t do that, “sin is always crouching at our door.” (Gen. 4:7) “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” This is what God said to Cain, when Cain got angry and was jealous of Abel. And, God asked him, in Verse 6, “Why has your countenance fallen?” When we look in the dictionary, the noun meaning for countenance is face. The verb, countenance means to permit, allow, and tolerate. Google Oxford Languages So, in effect, God was saying, “Why has what you permit, allow, and tolerate fallen?” Why has your standard fallen? Remember that successful life is about standards and boundaries. Standards are expectations of conduct and obedience. Boundaries are ways in which we enforce those standards.

We put out the sources/causes of our sin by getting rid of the “comfort food”, alcohol, drugs, etc. and staying away from places and people who have them. We deny that spirit of sloth and/or depression, and get up and make that bed anyway. We stay vigilant, and diligent to do the good/right things we should do, need to do, and want to do. And, first and foremost, we stay diligent to maintain our God-given authority over our spirit, and our life. If we are to be in authority over the other spirits, we must first rule diligently, and wisely over our own.

Here’s what may blow your mind. Just like Jesus came and died for us sinners, we have to die to them (actually ,to their sin), and for them. In dying to them, we are dying for them. Because, when they see us overcome the drugs, alcohol, the past, it might just draw them to the Lord. Jesus said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32) When we overcome those things, we’re also in a better position to help others to overcome. And, when you become a child of God, expect that the Father will “give” you to those in your world. This is why we have to separate ourselves from those who still participate in those unclean and unhealthy things. (John 3:16-17) (Matt. 28:19)

Love you from Café du Mondieu Copyright by Marina Morrison (aka) Eden Stillwater, March 21, 2023, 11:24 a.m.

Nip Them In The Bud

(Leviticus 20:1-5) “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.” In Verse 6, God addresses turning to mediums and spiritists. Obviously, these have to do with the occult, and with idle worship. The reason we’re not to turn to mediums is that Satan is a liar. And, it’s usually him behind the communications. So, you never really can be sure who you’re talking with. When God wants to speak to us, He speaks for Himself. He doesn’t need to go through anybody, now that we have the Holy Spirit. We’re not to try to be in contact with the dead/departed.

These verses caught my attention! And, they should catch our attention, because if you look at the last sentence of the message, God addresses the fallout-factor. He says He will set his face against the man who doesn’t put such people to death. But, it isn’t only that man who will suffer. God will set His face against the man’s clan (him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech) to cut them off from their people. Notice that in God’s eyes, not doing something to stop them (the sinner) is that same as doing what they’re doing. God actually commanded the Israelites to stone such people to death. Jesus changed all that; but, we are still expected to intervene when we see someone caught up in sin. (1Thes. 5:14-15) (1Thes. 2:4)

(2Cor. 7:10) “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” This is the strongest statement against violent retribution. But, we are to do what we can to help the offender/sinner see the truth, and repent. (Jude 1:20-23) (Eph. 5:11)

The biggest reason for stopping the sinner, is that it is not God’s will that any should perish. If we love Him, we surely must feel the same way. (2Peter 3:9) The next thing we need to protect ourselves against is the generational curses, and the bondages they bring. When we condone and/or participate in sin, especially those of such a grievous nature as idol worship and the occult, we’re setting our children and children’s children up for a world of hurt. (Ex. 20:4-6) (Ex. 34:6-7) (Eph. 2:3)

The important thing we must realize is that the farther away from God, His Word, Will, and Way, that we get, the darker our minds get. (John 8:44) Satan is the exact opposite of Jesus. (John 1:4) tells us that Jesus’ life is the light of men. The first thing Satan did was to deceive Eve. Straight up, he lied to her: “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” (Gen. 3:4) When we believe Satan’s lies, or any lies, really, our minds are darkened by them, and we cannot see truth clearly.Then, we pass those lies on to our children, who pass them on to theirs, and so on, and so on. That’s a generational curse, and how it works. Obviously, not every little sin is a grievous one. But, we do need to educate our children, and truthfully. This is the only way they will grow to be strong enough to stand against the evils in this world.

Love you from Café du Mondieu

The Two Greatest Ones

(Leviticus 19:9-18) Loving our neighbors is the message in this passage of scriptures. God spells out some things for us clearly here.

He starts with telling us to be considerate of the poor and the sojourner (temporary resident), in our land. Next, we’re told that we’re not to steal, deal falsely with one another, or lie to one another. If you skip a few verses, to the last one, God tells us there that we are not to hate one another, but reason frankly with one another. We’re not to bear grudges against each other, or take vengeance on one another. (Col. 3:12-14) (Hebrews 10:30)

Verse 13 tells us not to rob our neighbors or oppress them. We’re also told to pay our hired workers expediently.

Verse 14 addresses the disabled among us. We are to help them, and not hinder them. God uses the term, “put a stumbling block in front of them”. When I read this, I could almost see the LORD standing there, tongue in cheek. If you look at this in the Spirit, it applies to each one of us. Aren’t we all a little hard of hearing or short-sighted at times? Yes, even deaf and blind; aren’t we? (Matt. 18:7) (Matt. 16:23) (Matt. 18:5-6)

Verses 15-16 have to do with judging and with court. God says, “ do no injustice in court.” We’re not to show partiality to the poor or the great because of their status. We’re not to “go about as a slanderer among the people. That means we’re not to gossip, or be tale-bearers. We’re not to stand up against the life (or blood) of our neighbors. When we gossip, or repeat gossip about, and/or slander people, we’re standing up against them.

The last thing the LORD says in (Verse 18) is, “but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Romans 12:18) (Luke 10:27-37) (Lev. 19:34) (1John 4:21)

(Verses 19-35) give us some other laws; all of them in keeping with loving God, loving ourselves, and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Even sowing the field with two kinds of seed has to do with loving ourselves. One seed can choke out the other. Spiritually, it’s the same message Jesus gave us in the parable about the evil one sowing seed in the farmer’s wheat field while he was sleeping. (Matt. 13:36-43) (2Cor. 6:14-15) (1Cor. 10:21)

Love you from Café du Mondieu