January 2009 – Page 3 – Write From Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Isaiah 53:1 (NIV)
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD [Yahweh] been revealed?

The above verse is set amidst the classic Messianic section of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, which graphically depicts the suffering (the “passion”) that Jesus would have to endure in order to fulfill his mission as the Redeemer of mankind. His being figuratively referred to as the “arm of the Lord” is most significant.

God is spirit (John 4:24), and therefore has no arms, literally speaking. Being invisible, God needed a human representative who could, if he would, conduct his life so as to make Him known to a world of people oriented to what they could see, hear, smell, taste, or touch. We now know that Jesus of Nazareth was that man.

Chapter 12 of our book, One God & One Lord is titled “God’s Namesake in Action”. It shows how Jesus is named after his Father, and how, in his ministry on earth among mankind, much of what Jesus did re-presented what God had done for His people in the Old Testament as “the LORD who provides,” “the LORD who heals,” etc. It also shows that the work Jesus did on earth was a “preview of coming attractions,” that is, a taste of what he will do as “King” in the future Millennial Kingdom.

It is now in his exalted and expanded ministry to Christians as “Lord” and “Head of the Body, the Church,” that Jesus is functioning as God’s “right hand man” in a far greater capacity than he did when he was on earth. Each member of the Body of Christ can count on the Lord Jesus doing for him what he did when he walked the earth.

Let us consider that relatively brief period of time when Jesus carried out the job God set before him as the Redeemer of mankind. As the Son of God, “The Man” who was to perfectly re-present his heavenly Father to a dying world, Jesus was busy. He had places to go and people to see. He had much work to do, and not much time to do it. In that vein, the following verse is pertinent:

John 5:17
Jesus said to them [the Jews who were persecuting him], “My Father is always at work [un]to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

Jesus was saying that the work God had done from Genesis until that time was to make it possible for him to be born and have the opportunity to carry out his ministry as the Savior of man—and that now it was his turn to work. What “work” had Jesus just done? He had healed a lame man, like God healed people in the Old Testament.

It is most significant that the Old Testament was written primarily for Jesus. Yes, because Genesis through Malachi was his “ID,” if you will, telling him who he was (the promised “seed of the woman,” etc). It was also the “blueprint” for his life—and his gruesome death. And it was also his motivation to go all the way through the Cross, because in reading about many men and women who gave their lives for their belief in his coming as the Messiah, he became determined not to let them down.

The Old Testament was also his “coupon” for the kingship of the world that would be his if he fulfilled his mission. That was “the joy set before him” that enabled him to “endure the Cross.” So when you read the Old Testament, ask yourself what Jesus could have learned from what you are reading.

Read entire article here.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Can We Talk?

The President’s First Week in Office

January 24, 2009 Karen

One thing I really like about this incoming administration? Their willingness to communicate with us.

President Obama lays out the key priorities. He goes into detail, noting that the plan will update our electric grid by laying more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines; weatherize 2.5 million homes; protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans in danger of losing their coverage; secure 90 major ports; renovate 10,000 schools; and triple the number of science fellowships.

This was my favorite part of his speech:

I know that some are skeptical about the size and scale of this recovery plan. I understand that skepticism, which is why this recovery plan must and will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my Administration accountable for these results. We won’t just throw money at our problems – we’ll invest in what works. Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, and informed by independent experts whenever possible. We’ll launch an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.

I’m ABSOLUTELY in favor of keeping track of where our money goes and weeding out unnecessary spending. (Bravo on the wage freeze in Washington! They all make too money, in my opinion).

Keep up the good work, President Obama. So far so good in my book.

You can subscribe to the White House blog here. Thanks to Jen at Momma Blogs A Lot for the link tip.

Saturday Stuff

Smile! It’s Saturday!

January 24, 2009January 23, 2009 Karen

Here’s another fun meme to coax a smile out of you. Smiley Saturday is brought to you by Lightening Online.

I love comics. They never fail to make me smile. And since I have like a gazillion saved in a folder, this is a perfect opportunity to start sharing them with you.

Here’s one …

So tell me, do your kids have monsters under their beds?

My boys were never afraid of anything under their beds, but to this day, they are both still a little creeped out by their closets. In fact, I have to close their closet doors every night before bedtime and every morning, I find them both open!

And my boys are 16 and 14! LOL

Life-condensed

At This Moment …

January 23, 2009 Karen

It’s 4:42 p.m.

I’m sitting here trying to ignore my grumbling stomach while trying to keep my eyes open. I’ve had to resort to pouring myself a cup of coffee, left over from this morning because it has been confirmed (by abstaining and then drinking it to see what would happen) that my body no longer likes Starbucks coffee.

WAAH!

So I’m now drinking a nasty cup of coffee so I can wake up and have enough energy to do both Turbo Jam AND walk tonight because I can’t shake that disgusting, bloated body in the dark window image out of my head.

I never got around to going grocery shopping today, but I did make a dent in my emails – albeit a small dent. In fact, I was chugging along and correcting some HTML code when *POOF*, the lights went out. It’s a good thing I had juuust saved my work before that happened or I would be busy patching a hole in the wall made from my head continually hitting it.

The power was out for about an hour, but it was the hour before I needed to go pick up the kids so I was frantically trying to reach my husband to ask him what I needed to do to open the garage door (you pull the rope Karen, no big deal – why is that so hard to remember??) so I could get my car out and pick up the kids.

Luckily, that wasn’t necessary and the power came back on just minutes before I needed to take off. Whew!

I sat around and read that entire hour because when you lose your electricity and you’re stuck at home you can only do two things (okay, three things, but the husband wasn’t around so we’ll knock that one off the list *winkwink*) – sleep or read by a window.

I read. And I was almost disappointed when the lights came back on.

The husband has band practice tonight and I don’t have to cook because it’s Friday night and it’s our “go git” night – a family tradition – so I’m savoring the utter freedom of simply sitting back and waiting for the husband to come home, and drinking coffee the consistency of oil so we can go grab something to eat before he takes off and blows his eardrums for the evening. (I dread when he goes to band practice because when he comes back, he REEKS of cigarette smoke because virtually everyone in the band smokes but him. Or so he says …. hmmm…

It was a semi-productive day today and I’m feeling pretty satisfied with myself. Considering I was completely unproductive the rest of the week, I’m not going to complain.

What are you doing tonight?

Friday Fun

Seven Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 3)

January 23, 2009January 23, 2009 Karen

Seven Quick Takes Friday is hosted at Conversion Diary.

Isn’t this graphic cute?? I love it and am glad to see one of my favorite memes is now “official” (meaning they have their own cute graphic now. *smile*)

Let’s get started …

—1—

Hi! Did you miss me yesterday? Did you wonder what was going on with me because I only posted once as opposed to the fifty times a day I usually post?

thewomen_poster *sigh* Here’s what happened … I spent a good amount of time (I won’t tell you exactly how much time because it’s just pathetic) writing an entry about the movie I watched on the treadmill Wednesday night – “The Women.” And I was getting into it and I was about 1,000 words deep when it suddenly dawned on me, this is crap. Like really boring, preachy crap and I can’t post this because this stuff even puts me to sleep, what will it do to my visitors? And granted, this journal is about me, my thoughts, my life, blahblahblah, but come on, posting that would have been cruel and unusual punishment so I hit the delete button and from that point on? I was brain dead. You couldn’t have made me write something else if you had stuck a gun to my head.

But in case you’re curious to hear my thoughts on the movie, here are the highlights:

It’s a movie about women, for women. There wasn’t one male spotted in the entire film. Not one male spoke. I thought that was a very interesting aspect of the movie.
It’s a movie designed to make women think about their lives and their behaviors.
The movie also points out that when things go wrong in a relationship, don’t automatically point the finger to the partner – face up to the part you played in the break up.
It’s possible to be a strong, independent woman without being a bitch about it.

And those are my thoughts, in a nutshell. The End.

—2—

I now have 45 emails waiting on me. (And here I am, blogging instead of answering them – DEAR GOD, I’m a sad individual). And that freaks me out a little bit because WOW! So many requests and they involve more than a simple link or two. And I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and like a deer stuck staring at oncoming traffic and I absolutely, positively MUST get those answered today.

Today. And before Monday rolls around.

Seriously.

—3—

And just as I typed number 2, a utility truck pulled up in our backyard and it looks like they are preparing to install another pole in one of my neighbor’s yards to help lift the wires up so they aren’t hanging so low and shorting out the neighborhood every time the wind blows which means there’s a good chance I might lose my electricity before I’ve had a chance to catch up on my emails and I haven’t taken a shower yet and now I’m REALLY FREAKED OUT!

But not enough to stop writing this post …

So, moving on …

—4—

Though we’ve decided to take a cruise for our family vacation this summer, we haven’t actually made our reservations yet. We just haven’t had time to both sit down and DO it. Wednesday night, I HAD to walk because now that I know I’m going to have my picture taken in skimpy summer clothing (notice I didn’t say bathing suit because any pictures taken of me in a bathing suit are mysteriously deleted – I have no idea why that keeps happening), I must get this old body into some sort of shape or we’ll have lots of lovely vacation pictures with gaping holes where I was supposed to be standing.

Because I’m not too proud to cut myself out of them.

And last night, MK had his freshman orientation (more on that in a second), and tonight, the husband has band practice, so hopefully, we can get around to making our reservations tomorrow at which time I will explain, in excruciating detail, just what we’re doing and where we’re going – exactly. Lucky you. 😀

—5—

We went to MK’s freshman orientation last night. First, I feel compelled to do the whole girly squealing, tearing my hair out, reaction thing when I think about my BABY starting high school next year.

Seriously. I know it gets old when you read about people saying, “Where did the time go” but seriously, where in the world did the time go?! You young mothers out there with young children, just wait, you won’t FULLY appreciate what I’m trying to say until your kid starts high school. I can’t even explain the impact that has on you emotionally. The overall feeling is buried somewhere between excited-sad-scared-depressed. It’s just … strange. Just wait.

The orientation was long, and drawn out, and we had heard most of it before with GD’s orientation, and MK had even been present for GD’s orientation and was quite cranky we made him go, but I’m glad we did.

The boy’s personality LIT UP when his friends showed up and he talked me out of $8.00 in order to buy a school ball cap. I have a feeling that kid is going to be very sociable. And after the speech was over and we were allowed to walk around the school and visit various tables of clubs, etc., he really acted interested. He wanted to know more about Japanese club and of course, band.

The band information? Disturbs me. Freshman band will have eight evening rehearsals and a full week, we’re talking 8:00 – 5:00, of band camp, in the summer!! All that work before school even begins! And during the school year, they will pretty much be gone every weekend in October/November, play at every home football game and will take an overnight trip to St. Louis and Tulsa.

ACK! I’m not sure I’m ready to let my baby go with a bunch of other wild kids over night and out of town!!

And the sheet warns that band will take a lot of extra time away from the kids and they are still expected to keep their grades up and MK doesn’t manage his time wisely to begin with … can this kid handle it?!

*takes a deep breath*

I can feel the gray hairs growing in as we speak.

—6—

While we were walking around at the orientation, I noticed my reflection in one of the dark windows.

OH. MY. FREAKING. GOSH. Where in the HELL did that gut come from?! Seriously, what in the heck is going on? Here I am, exercising, eating less, definitely cutting back on the junk food, drowning myself in water and juice and yet … and yet … *points in horror* I look like I’m three months pregnant.

In addition to my blubber, I think it might be the clothes I’m wearing. I’ve been wearing these stretchy jeans with a low waist and though they are comfortable as all get out, they don’t do much about holding my gut in. And then I wore this short-sleeved sweater thing that just didn’t compliment my body type.

I’m just going to have to get over my aversion to shopping and spend some time figuring out what looks good on me. Seriously, I am really depressed about this. And I completely disgust myself.

But apparently not enough to pass on the ice cream we had after the orientation last night. *sigh* I’m hopeless. And I have exactly 5 1/2 months to get toned up.

—7—

Another reason I never got around to posting anything else yesterday was because I made the mistake of updating my iPod Touch. Thereby visiting the iTunes store.

I shouldn’t be allowed to visit the iTunes store. I lost track after the fifth click. And even though I prefer to buy a hard copy of my music CDs, I really hate buying a CD for ONE song, so I go wild on iTunes.

And speaking of music, have you ever heard anything from Jem? She’s wonderful. I LOVE this girl. She writes all of her own stuff. And her voice … is simply amazing. Think grungy Enya.

I know that doesn’t sound very flattering, but trust me, she’s amazing. Here’s just one of the songs on her new album that I’m in love with. It’s called “It’s Amazing” and yes, it is amazing.

You can buy her new album here. Honestly, you won’t be disappointed.

Have a great Friday, everyone!

________________________

bloggersbest2 Okay, picture this – you’re trying to entice new readers to your blog. But they only have time to read one of your blog posts. Which blog post would you direct them to? Which of your blog posts really shines and says something about your life? Which blog post are you most proud of? Now take that blog post and submit it to the Blogger’s Best Carnival so everyone else can appreciate your greatness. 🙂

To learn more about the carnival, read this page.

The next Blogger’s Best Carnival: January 31st.

Prize: The satisfaction of reading quality blog posts. 🙂

Friday Fun

Friday Craft: Recycle Old Crayons

January 23, 2009January 21, 2009 Karen

I found this little gem over at Instructables.

Isn’t this cool? I wish I had thought of this when my kids were little and I had BOXES of old crayon stubs lying around the house, and in drawers, and on the floors and stuck in the heating vents.

But I digress.

What a cute, cheap and FUN thing to give away at your child’s school Valentine party! They could insert these into their valentine’s (thereby making them unique and a sure crowd pleaser), or into the kids’ goody bags. Wouldn’t that be so much better than sticking a bunch of gooey-chocolately-goodness in their bags?

Er, maybe not for the kids, but I bet the parents would prefer it. *grin*

Anyway, if have a few minutes, round up the kids, gather those crayon stubs and follow the tutorial to make fun crayon shapes!

In fact …

I bet I still have that old box of crayons around here somewhere. I wonder if I could talk my teenage boys into doing this with me.

Hey boys! Want to melt some crayons and make fun shapes??

I guess that’s a no?

Bummer.

Project 365

Project 365: January 22nd

January 22, 2009January 21, 2009 Karen

And here we go, another week of random photos. If you want to keep track of my photos, you can subscribe to the Project 365 RSS feed.

1. I have no problem washing laundry. I have no problem drying laundry. I sort of have a problem with folding laundry. But when it comes time to PUTTING the laundry away? I have a problem!! I can let this situation go for exactly 2.5 days before the husband gets cranky with me. (When you’ve been married for nearly 19 years, you pick this sort of thing up. *grin*).

2. The husband, just waking up. Here is our morning routine: I’m usually up first. And I’ve made the email rounds when the husband stumbles in, gives me a quick kiss and then stumbles through making his breakfast of waffles, bacon and hot apple juice. (Every morning!) After he eats, he sits in that chair and drinks some coffee and we chat a bit while he wakes up. He’s so cute with his morning hair and glassy eyes.

3. Because the boys do such a good job at school (work) every week, I take them for a treat once a week – sometimes it’s donuts, but most often, it’s ice cream at our favorite creamy. This is GD, in the back seat, hunched over his brownie/custard … concoction. I wonder where he gets his “hands off my food or you die” attitude. Hhmm…

4. MK, same ice cream trip, only in the passenger seat. The way he eats ice cream just cracks me up. He takes little dainty bites, slurps really, which makes his ice cream last forever. When asked why he eats ice cream like this? “I hate brain freeze.” Well, there is that … OR, the real answer could be, “I like to stretch the anticipation out as long as I possibly can because it drives mom crazy.” But he’s a sweet kid, why would I think that? *snort*

5. Our front door and a few numbers from our house address. Why yes, I DO like to live dangerously. Muahahahaha. (Okay not really, I needed something to take a picture of that day and that was the only thing I could think of).

6. My weekly picture (I’m really not that narcissistic , well, okay, maybe I am a little, but I plan on stitching all of these photos together at the end of the year so we can all laugh at the crazy hair lady getting older before our eyes). I took this picture in the late afternoon, hence the funky hair color. It looks so red! And fluffy! And in bad need of a good conditioner!

7. Lovelovelove this sign!! If you haven’t visited before, then you probably don’t know that cell phones and driving? DRIVE ME CRAZY! This sign is actually prominently displayed at the driveway exit at MK’s school. Whoever commissioned to put that up, THANK YOU. Of course, people won’t listen, but THANK YOU.

Month: January 2009

Teaching: Jesus is God’s Right-Hand Man