Claiming the Land

This morning I woke early so I could be praying as my mom went into surgery. I haven't heard that they didn't do it, so I am assuming she is in the process of getting her PEG tube. This will be good for a few reasons. First of all, when she does radiation the doctors believe there will come a time when she can't swallow anymore and she'll need this in place beforehand so they don't have to try to insert it while she is in a weakened state.  Secondly, the food they provide her with will be a good balanced meal and she will be getting all her vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc which should help keep her healthy. Finally, food just doesn't taste good anymore. This will keep her eating even when nothing looks, sounds or tastes appetizing. 

My reading this morning was Numbers 33 and 34. Moses and the Israelites have just about reached the end of their wanderings in the desert and now they are finding out just how much land they have been given by God. The truly sad part is that they don't claim even HALF of the land God gave them. They missed out on so much of the blessing. They got tired and quit when they thought they had done enough. God wanted to give them more, so much more! We have to be careful in our lives not to quit fighting a battle, purging sin out of of lives and claiming half the victory.  God desires to give us complete and total victory over the land, but if we stop we will never receive it.

"But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover it shall be that I will do to them as I thought to do to you." Numbers 33:55-56

Don't stop fighting the battle! Don't let it continue to be an irritant in your eye and a thorn in your side. Don't allow the enemy to harass you where you dwell. And don't allow someone else to claim part of the blessing God has ordained for you. God's word promises us that we can be free indeed - claim His promises and walk in His power. 

Free at Last, Free at Last!

Ahhh.... Earl is soundly sleeping (and snoring!) next to me.  It's almost 11pm on Wednesday, October 14th, and I am getting ready to drift off to sleep without waking up off and on throughout the night because my mind is still going when it's supposed to be sleeping.

Hello, October 15th.  You came, we conquered!

I checked my emails at class tonight and two of the last three projects on my list were marked off as completed and the other one is sitting on my desk waiting for my approval and a partner's signature. And then, my friends, I am done with the 2008 tax season.

Oh, 2009 tax season is a mere two months away? At least I'll enjoy it while it lasts!!

Here are a couple pictures from Earl's trip to Miami.  Is this boy not just so precious?!

Independence Day!

Earl and I have been waiting for Brad Paisley's album to come out and it just did this past Tuesday. It's called America Saturday Night and in the title track Brad is singing about how mixed the United States are.

Shes got Brazilian leather boots on the pedal of her German car

Listen to the Beatles singing back in the USSR

yeah shes goin around the world tonight

but she ain't leavin here

shes just going to meet her boyfriend down at the street fair

It's a french kiss, italian ice

Spanish moss in the moonlight

just another American Saturday night

There are many people each year who choose to become American. We may not always get it right, but there's no other place I'd rather build my life! (another country song reference)

Tonight we are going to our friend's house for some backyard BBQ and to check out the fireworks on the beach by the pier. She's making wings and burgers, I'm bringing shrimp cocktail and strawberry shortcakes. Looking forward to a great time with a few friends!

One final portion of a song that I love from the Zac Brown Band:

I thank God for my life

And for the stars and stripes

May freedom forever fly, let it ring.

Salute the ones who died

The ones that give their lives so we don`t have to sacrifice

All the things we love

Like our chicken fried

Defiance

Last night Earl and I watched Defiance with Daniel Craig, Liev Schrieber and a host of other phenomenal actors. Now, Earl and I L-O-V-E true stories, especially when they are in important historical times. The director is Edward Zwick who also directed The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond. It was a great film as a whole - fantastic script, acting, cinematography. Here is a brief synopsis as provided by the Christian Science Monitor:

Based on a 1993 book by historian Nechama Tec, it focuses on three brothers, the Bielskis – Tuvia (Daniel Craig), a thief and smuggler who has been in hiding since 1941 when the Nazis wiped out the community where his family farmed; Zus (Liev Schreiber), a troublemaker even more violence prone than Tuvia; and Asael (Jamie Bell), who, compared with his siblings, is like a babe-in-the-Belarus woods.

Those woods are both the battlefront and the haven for what gradually, under Tuvia's command, becomes a self-sustaining ragtag detachment of Jewish civilians whom he must eventually lead to safety. The intellectuals in this community are looked down upon by the Bielskis because they lack survivalist skills – it's a neat reversal of the usual emphasis in Jewish-themed dramas on the primacy of the scholar.

Eventually, after a violent fight between Tuvia and Zus that, like much in "Defiance," is almost biblical in its implications, Zus breaks away from the encampment and sides with Soviet partisans aligned with the Red Army. Ultimately, 50 Jews died, 1,200 were saved – by other Jews.

There were moments that were so painful and difficult in the choices they had to make. We wondered each step of the way if they were "becoming monsters in order to fight monsters." We saw them struggle with the concept of their humanity and how to live with dignity and protect life in this forest world they created. It truly is a remarkable story.

The Bielski brothers survived their time in the forest and never sought any recognition for their actions during WWII. One of the last scenes tells us how many people grew from the 1,200 Jews they saved during the war - tens of thousands have come. I think what an incredible legacy. What an amazing testimony. A rabbi says to Tuvia Bielski (who lead the group as the commander) that he believed God had sent Tuvia to save them, to which Tuvia responded, "Ridiculous," and then the rabbi said, "I know, but just in case, I thank Him and I thank you."

The Price of Freedom

Last night Earl and I watched Valkyrie.  When the movie came out the History channel began playing show after show and documentary after documentary on the true story behind the July 20th attempt on Hitler's life.  We had a lot of background heading into watching the dramatized version of events.  It is a great story of courage. 

Courage. The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910

Without men and women who are wiling to spend themselves and have their faces marred by dust and sweat and blood, we would not have our freedoms.  In response to their efforts, my "thank yous" seem paltry and weak.  But thank you for laying down your life so I may have freedom.

The cost of freedom is a high and steep price.  So often, in order for a people, a nation, an individual to have freedom and to know life, it costs someone else a sacrifice of theirs.  I think of a mother, who, in those first few months, gives up her sleep, her body, her energy so her child will be able to live.  

And to the One who paid a price so great so I could have a life so free, thank You. 

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  John 15:13

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  John 8:32

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6