Some of you know that I love studying the Ancient Hebrew Word Pictures.  This is also known as the paleo-Hebrew and is believed by some to be the foundation for all language on earth.  For sure the modern Hebrew, Greek and English come from it!  Very fascinating stuff.

Essentially, for those not familiar with it, the paleo-Hebrew is the original Hebrew language that was important not only for the letter but for the picture that the letter appeared as.  For example, the word for religion is dat and is made up for two letters–dalet and tav.  Dalet means “a door” and tav (which has been changed but originally looked like a cross) means “of the sign”.  For the reader of the paleo-Hebrew “religion” is “the door of the sign of the cross”.  John 10:9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through ME, he shall be saved . . . ”

So what does this have to do with fire and why am I writing about it?  There are two types of fire a-sham and a-shar.  Asham is the fire of chaos and means shame, blame and guilt.  Ashar is the fire of the prince and menas bless, lead straight, and happiness.  What I’m about to quote is from Dr. Seekins and specifically taken from his work “Men, Woman and Fire: The Dynamics of Divinely Created Relationships” and applies to both marriage and parenting.

Regarding the fire of chaos:

“It never works. Anytime that someone tries to use shame, blame or guilt to ‘purify’ (fix) me is does not bring out the best in my character. Instead I have to struggle to not react back. Why is it that what never works with me I keep trying to use with others?”

Regarding the fire of the prince:

“I’ll follow them anywhere!  Has anyone ever truly valued you? A grandparent, a boss? Something unusual happens whenever a leader thinks more of you than of themselves – we gladly follow!  The sheep of a good shepherd hear his/her voice and follow. they don’t have to be forced, they follow with all their heart!”

I’m just going to let that sink in.

the title might seem to say it all but it couldn’t be any more shallow I preached on it last week when I covered James 5 on our series through James. I had no idea when I was preparing how intense the message would be–okay, I did have an idea, but it was even more than I expected lol Someone asked me today if I held back a few times and I explained that, yes, I did, but it was because God was putting heavy things on my heart that were convicting to me but would have been condemning to a lot of people who aren’t already being worked on by God in this area. God kept telling me, “No, Crystal, that is for you–I’m talking to you.”

Ever since God has been increasing our financial situation I’ve felt a very heavy burden (not in a bad way, but a strong conviction) to make sure that every penny we spend is spent how God wants. And we are starting savings, and planning for the future, etc. I even blurted out during the message, “May God not ‘bless’ me with anything that will testify against me at the final judgment!” Did you know that is in James 5? It doesn’t condemn the rich like some people try to make it–but it says that the money not paid to the workers who labor in the fields will testify against them on the final judgment. Our money doesn’t just say something about us if someone were to look at our checking account, it will actually testify about us at the final judgment. That’s heavy!

But what God is really burdening me with is that it’s not supposed to be an either/or. It’s not as much about *what* we buy as *how*. I mean, the issue is whether we worship God or mammon. I can buy things that I enjoy and not be worshiping mammon. For instance, this week he led me to www.saintscoffee.com. This is a ministry that for every pound of coffee you purchase they donate money to feed 1 child in a third world country for a month! I can have my coffee AND feed a child. I don’t have to choose. God isn’t asking me to be self-flagellating as I strive to be responsible with what he is blessing us with.

I also got a call this week from dd’s dance school leader. For the past year or so dh has done the groundskeeping for the school to pay for the bulk of our cost for her dance classes. His parents have blessed us with the rest. As it turns out there is a new family at the school who has more children taking classes and is in financial need so they will be taking over the groundskeeping. I didn’t even have a moment of anxiety–that’s good. The blessing should go to someone who needs it just as it went to us and we are so grateful! We are now in a position to pay for the courses and we are willing to do that.

And I’m also talking with dd about putting part of her allowance towards her dance classes. We’re haggling about the amount, but she very much wants to make sure she can tithe each week as do the boys. So far we haven’t had *cash* each week so their money has been going into the Bank of Mom and I’ve explained they are investing in our family but the funds will be available soon for withdrawel They are planning what things they want to get and this has been good because rather than spending it every week as it flows through their hands they have been able to build up pretty substantial amounts.

We are also looking into World Vision and adopting a child–we just can’t decide yet what part of the world we want to support. Jewish Voice also has a ministry to Jews in Ethiopia that I am wanting to learn more about. There are so many things we really believe in. I also am going to get the information from a friend on an organization she’s mentioned that supports Jews making aliyah from Russia and Europe.

So I’m looking for more things like Saints Coffee. Ways that I can support others while I buy the things we use. I’d love info if anyone knows of other sites.

regarding my health. I’m in physical therapy 3 times a week for the hit and run accident we were in a month ago, and I’m getting treated for my hyperparathyroid and vitamin D deficiency (though I’m requesting a referral for a second opinion just because I do not like my endo and am tired of him dismissing me because he’s not seen these issues in someone as young as me *sigh*) and now I got my bone density scan the endo didn’t want to put in for me because he was *sure* that my insurance wouldn’t pay for it but they DID–and I have osteopenia. It’s early osteoporosis if I don’t get it reversed. I ordered the book “Reversing Osteopenia” from amazon.com when I put in dh’s order

And I am convinced I really need to work towards teaching there and my children can all attend and we can be beach bums What a BLAST we had this last week.

The Church of the Nazarene has a wonderful LOVE program for their pastors and whatever district you are in you can get a free week in the FLEX housing at the university in your region. During the summer when the students are out of session they open things up to the pastors and their families. Poor us . . . our university is on a cliff overlooking the Pacific

We spent two days swimming at the beach, went to the Lighthouse and Cabrillo National Monument, saw the Sea Lions come in at La Jolla Cove, toured the USS Midway, took the ferry boat to Coronado Island where we did a double decker bus tour of the island and saw the sharks get fed at the Scripps Birch Aquarium. What a fantastic week. Add in a lot of resting and great family time and you’ve got a top rate family vacation.

We were also inspired for our science studies this summer. I got a book of sea life origami and we decided to do an entire seascape on a tri-fold board. I also got a book to teach us how to draw sealife and we can have those pictures going in and out of our origami seascape and pictures of us and different things we saw added in. We’ll print out some facts about different elements of our scape and it will be really exciting to do and to display at our end of the year night in the Spring.

We had also committed to scrapbooking our year and documenting all the things we do and learn and we’re going to have about 10 pages from this vacation alone

Of course coming home to realizing when I turned off the electric strip to save a little electricity on unused appliances it would have helped for me to know that the fridge was plugged into it also. Yep, three garbage bags of food later we started our post-trip typically decluttering with all of our perishable foods. Amazingly, I had been feeling foolish for buying a little too much in the area of groceries on the trip and we realized God had prepared us and we didn’t have to run to the store for anything *AMEN*

and I’m trying to win her some carriers Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)“>