Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thoughts on Weddings by Regina

It is good for a wedding to be focused on the bride; she is so valuable that Jesus laid down his life for her. Revelation describes the holy city descending out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. The glorious bride is a picture of what the church needs to be. Scripture repeatedly describes the bride adorned with jewels.

We have seen a wedding where the bride wore very simple dress. They tried to focus on the groom with trumpets blowing when he walked through a pasture to the wedding site, but it lacked the glory of heaven which I think God wants us to reflect.

Weddings are great evangelism. We need to build a biblical culture. One that celebrates good, not just condemns the bad. Drama is an example. Jesus did not tell people a two or three step formula for salvation, He told stories, teaching people, using examples they understood. The kingdom of Heaven is like leaven. It works slowly but it fills the whole earth.

The scripture is full of feasts where the people had to stop everything and rejoice before the LORD. Each feast had a purpose to celebrate, something to remember. A wedding is a celebration that should reflect that future wedding.

Paul Jehle has an excellent series on Marriage and Courtship. There is a meaning in wedding traditions that we have forgotten which is why we often don’t think they are important. The ceremony replays symbolicly the phases of courtship and coming to a covenant: The father's permission, eventually the veil is lifted after the vows.

If you ever go to a Passover Haggada they take hours to finish the meal, interrupting it with stories and symbolic traditions that point to Christ. The meal includes numerous toasts where they “bless the Lord.”

Wedding feasts ought to be festive with joyful honor for God. Truth and beauty are radical all by themselves. I saw a couple who saved their first kiss for the wedding. Some wept!

Honeymoons are important, even if they are just at home. God set aside the first year for a bridegroom to not be allowed to go to war or take on too much responsibility, so that he could “cheer up his wife.”

This was opposite of other ancient cultures that did not allow men to marry until they had years of mandatory military service. God put a high value on his people growing and bonding together. He put the family before the state. Greece put the state before the family. As a result Greek culture became pervasively sodomite with dishonor for women. One of the Greek philosophers said that women were not intelligent, and if you found one that was, she was so ugly she couldn’t be looked at. He thought the purest “love” was between men.

The honeymoon paid for with debt is all too common. Much of the problem is our human mind-set that “this person will make me happy,” not realizing that the purpose for marriage is to forward a dominion mission for God’s glory. Steve Wilkins, in a sermon Marriage is Not for You, said that marriage is not for us; it is for the Lord; it is for the world.

What you think and do is an example to your siblings, your congregation, your community and to your descendents. God is faithful to bless even the most stumbling obedience.

When patriarchy carries over into authority over children’s marriages it is devastating.

We think you’ll enjoy taking a look at this wedding where the groom runs in with trumpets sounding and speaks of God’s design for marriage to the congregation. The bride, Katie, is the first young lady featured in Return of the Daughters DVD.

http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/multimedia/enn/

(go to Bradrick wedding, March 13, 2009)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Scott Brown on Defining Issues of the Reformation -- Marriage and Womanhood

Scott Brown on the Defining Issues of the Reformation from Vision Forum on Vimeo.

Illegal Immigration and Biblical Economy ~ by Regina

Mexico is cursed with poverty because of a lack of the gospel. The USA is now cursed with recession and worse because we have turned away from God's blessing, (Deut. 28.) The word of God has all the principles necessary for economic success including sound money "just weights and measures" which refers to measuring the gold and silver properly -- not stealing. Our whole money system is based on stealing -- money created out of paper and loaned to the US at interest by a private central bank called the Federal Reserve.

The “North American Free Trade Agreement” (NAFTA) brought thousands of Mexicans to the northern border to work in factories and a few years later, through regulation the companies went to China, leaving the people little option but to run to the US where we provide medical, welfare…

If our economic house were in order there would be jobs for many more.

The solution is for Christians to take dominion – through service. We must teach our children about sound money, biblical ethics for public office and raise our sons to be “elders in the gates,” elected officials. And raise our daughters to be wise advisors to back up those men.

The solution is to obey God in how we raise our families AND how we vote and hold our representatives accountable. It is part of our worship. God created civil government and says that the civil officer is his “minister” the same word as “deacon.” When Christians step out of the civil realm, or send their children to be educated by statists, we bring spiritual and economic poverty to the world.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

God sets the solitary in families;
He brings out those who are bound into prosperity;
But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. -- Ps 68:6

Music in Utero: The Smile of the Unborn

by Chuck Colson
BreakPoint June 29, 2009

In 1984, a video called The Silent Scream helped change the way people think about the unborn child. The footage of an actual abortion and the fetus’s reaction reminded us that abortion involves the death of a real person.


A recent bit of footage has similar potential, only it couldn’t be more different from The Silent Scream...


A segment of The Music Instinct featured Sheila C. Woodward of the University of Southern California, who has studied fetal responses to music. A camera and a microphone designed for underwater use were inserted into the uterus of a pregnant woman. And then Woodward sang.


The hydrophone picked up two sounds: the “whooshing” of the uterine artery and the unmistakable sound of a woman singing a lullaby.


Then something extraordinary happened. Upon hearing the woman’s voice, the unborn child smiled.


http://www.crosswalk.com/news/11605346/

Monday, July 13, 2009

WCWC 2009


In a couple short weeks four Seppi’s will be traveling to beautiful Santa Cruz, for West Coast Christian Worldview Conference. While Santa Cruz is a cool respite from a hot summer, it is much more beautiful by the wonderful friends we meet.



Lots of speakers, recreation in the afternoon and Civil War era dancing or talk and small group devotionals in the evening.



Gary DeMar is back this year.

(Lance was a big lobbyist to get Gary in 2009)



His talks are:

• What You Need to know About Economics So You Don’t Get Ripped Off, Lose Your Shirt, and End Up Living in a Box

• The Impact of Pop Culture on Worldviews—from Superman and Elvis to The Beatles and Obama

• Is it Really the End of the World or am I Just Having a Bad Day?

• “We’re From the Government, and We’re Not Here to Help You.”



Others include:

Joe Morecraft

Brian Abshire

Mark Rushdoony (son of R.J.) and

“Celebrate People” Chris Ortiz, of Chalcedon.edu

http://wcwc.ws/wcwc/Speakers.html


The deadline is July 15 for pre-registration.

Starts evening of July 27-Aug 1

http://wcwc.ws/wcwc/Home.html


Our photos from last year found here:


Saturday, July 11, 2009

It's Not Iran - It's Obama's Administration Here in America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWFb1Yvlem4

Millet or Rice Casserole


In a large covered casserole pan put:

2c. raw millet or 3c. brown rice

9c. boiling water

2 c. tomato paste

2 medium sweet white onions

2 green bell peppers

2t. sea salt

1 c. sesame (ground)

1t. sweet basil

1 ½ c. sliced olives

1 t. paprika

1 ½ c. roasted almonds coarsely cut

Mix all.

Bake for 2hrs at 350 degrees.

The movie "Colony" is Coming Soon

Victor and Jodavid apply the Epoxy

Victor has John Calvin

Carter was a little nervous.

Here is the unveiling of two years of their labor.

We got to view "Colony" on high definition.

Ross's bee photography and Carter's editing is spectacular.

Jodavid's Jalopy

Alex Shuban guarantees our water distiller.
We are glad to have Pure Water.


Proper Costuming
Hawaiian shirts are OUT.

How about flannel?

Is this "the farmer look?"

Carter Gunn & Ross McDonnell

Watching

Holly Hocks

Tips from a Pro


My Flower

Becky Morecraft Sings "Hallelujah Praise Jehovah"

Elizabeth Elliot says that she has nothing against praise songs,

but the hymns get you through the night.

Singing the Psalms is like that.

We love this this rendition of Ps. 146.

from Vision Forum on Vimeo.

Good For Nothing Christians by Chuck Baldwin

This column is archived at
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090710.html

Fri, Jul 10, 2009

...Should it surprise us, then, that we see the encroachment of our liberties and the erosion of constitutional government coming hard and fast? Should it surprise us that America is losing its conscience--not to mention our heritage? Should it surprise us when we see hundreds of large, empty internment camps popping up everywhere? Should it surprise us when we read of would-be tyrants in Washington, D.C., trying to pass egregious legislation that would strip us of our Bill of Rights? Should it surprise us when we see multinational corporations working with foreign governments to erode the sovereignty of these United States? Should it surprise us when we see both Republican and Democratic Presidential administrations look the other way while our borders are being invaded and even erased?

When the salt loses its savor, it is "cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." And that is exactly what is happening to us today.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Childish Homeschooler Syndrome, Part Two

Is growing up in a Christian home an advantage to us, or a disadvantage?

First posted last December, this article by Elizabeth Botkin is a must read.

http://visionarydaughters.com/2008/12/childish-homeschooler-syndrome-part-two

To Love Life

“To love Christ is to love life. Life is full of the unexpected (including guests) and the untidy. Too many people want showcase living in showcase houses, where everything is hostile to life and to children. To be truly against abortion is to love life and children, and children mean dirty diapers and messy rooms, toys strewn about and more..."

R.J. Rushdoony, The Ultimate Pornography, Roots of Reconstruction p. 214

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Gerald Celente the disintegration of Empire America


Raise families, build businesses, develop Christian culture
and prepare to rebuild a God honoring nations and communities.
The current order cannot last. It is going to disintegrate. We must prepare to rebuild.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Reformation 500 Celebration in Boston

Children's Parade

Rebecca Serven


Rebecca Serven, as Idalette, wife of John Calvin



More Celebration at:

http://servenclan.blogspot.com/



Reformers of Our Own Day


Andrew Serven



Courtesy of Jason Kent
Joshua Phillips and Anna Sofia Botkin



Elizabeth Botkin


Ben Botkin has a dynamic music and soundtrack blog:

Anna Sofia Botkin

A kiss from Mom


Liberty Phillips






Bill Potter as Charles Darwin


The Debate







Most photos courtesy of Doug's blog:

http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/

Many More Fun Pictures:

http://granda3.blogspot.com/


Gilbert Arizona Tea Party - Pastor Steven L Anderson Speaks AZ

Our rights come from God

not from being American.

Pastor Anderson was tazed for not allowing his vehicle to be inspected without a warrant.

Here he is at the Ariz. Tea Party, saying the two parties to choose from are

the Constitutional Party for conservatives or the Libertarian Party for liberals.

The American View talk-show on Sarah Palin, her resignation from the Alaska governorship

Regina: For one thing she is an insider, or she’s being managed by them, just like Obama. They took her Henry Kissinger; she’s being handled. And so her conservatism that she is known and loved for, right now, by a lot of my friends, is going to evaporate, in any effective way. So she’s not worth voting for, because she is not going to be a strict constitutionalist.

But, what grieves me is the example she is going to be to a lot of Christian young women, because when I was little I wanted to be a Congresswomen like my heroine, Helen Chenoweth, who was a great lady and was not married at the time, and was a property rights advocate from Idaho. But one problem with Palin is that she is an example of a mother just doing it all, and you can’t do that.

John Lofton: That’s a very important point, because if you’re doing it all you are not a mother. Being a mother is a full-time job: it’s an in-the-home, keeper-of-the-home job, particularly for a person who purports to be a Christian. Now if she was not a Christian, then it would be just stupid for anyone to be saying, “Why aren’t you home raising your children?” because that’s the way heathens behave: They don’t raise their children, they have their children, because they haven’t found out how not to have the children, although they’re working on that. Rid the womb of – and then the minute they are borne then other people are raising the children.

And for the life of me I don’t understand why she would be attractive to any Christian for openers and secondly even as a conservative. You heard a lot of talk during the campaign about her being pro-life. Well, really? How so? She has said it. I did interviews with the lady who heads up the Alaska state Right To Life Committee as well as the lady who heads up the Alaska Eagle Forum and they did not want to talk about her [Palin’s] record on abortion, because she has none. She’s done nothing, and both of the ladies—I had to drag it out of them—said that the few things that their organizations in Alaska had pushed, that they thought pro-life, she, Palin, as Governor did not lift a finger to help them. Palin, herself has said that the abortion issue, the pro-life issue, is a state matter. So it’s ok for the states to decide to murder unborn babies.

She’s also said, when homosexuality came up, that she had friends who were homosexuals, and she doesn’t judge anyone.

When asked about evolution being taught in schools, “Yes, no problem with that.” Seriously, what would a conservative, much less a Christian, see in this women? I don’t get it.

Regina: It’s a matter of influence. She wants to be a strong woman; she wants to be a big influence on the world. But, the problem is that she could be so much more of an influence with her children.

JL: Thank you very much. Exactly!

R: Abigail Adams was the wife of one president and the mother of another, and I am just amazed reading her letters to her husband while he was in the Constitution Convention. The news couldn’t get in; nobody could get in there. It was a closed session, and they’re writing back and forth. She’s advising him and homeschooling her son at the same time. She had more influence than if she had been President.

JL: You’ve probably heard the phrase: “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” That’s true! There is no more important role if you want to effect world change, and I believe that was part of what she [Sarah Palin] said in her press conference, she wants to accomplish something else outside government now. O, great she’s at last found out maybe that’s not the best place to achieve world change, and of course our hope would be would go home and raise her kids. But, in her case, seriously, I don’t think she has anything useful to impart to her children: she does not think like a Christian, she does not act like a Christian. You know for better or for worse she has to raise her kids, but I don’t think that she has much to teach them.

Regina: One thing I notice about Proverbs 31, this woman is totally amazing, she is running businesses, she’s running a home, she has her family looking good, but her husband is in the gates. She is not in the gates; her husband is in the gates, and it’s because she has freed him up to be there. If she didn’t have everything together, he couldn’t be there!

JL: Well, there you go; that’s right. As it was, he wasn’t at the gate, he was home changing diapers or standing in the background twiddling his thumbs at a press conference. I thought it was very embarrassing, for him. There was a lot of embarrassing things, by the way, this idea, these questions that were, thank God, being raised by some, raising it explicitly about how proper is it for this woman to be flying around the country when she has children at home: teen aged children, and tiny kids. Seeing her come off that plane clutching her little down-syndrome baby, and that made some people furious. I remember seeing Cokie Roberts on ABC’s this week program; she had smoke coming out of her ears, she was furious that these questions were being raised about staying at home and raising her kids. Her point was: This outrageous to raise questions about her raising her family. “They’d never ask a man that,” she said. And I thought, "Of course not! Of course not! The man is supposed to work outside the house!"

Regina: I met a family that was raised without a mother. The mother passed away, and I never realized how important my Mom was until I did. And I woke up the next morning for the next six months, thanking God my Mother was still alive.

JL: Wow.

Regina: I love this family. They were wonderful, fun in a lot of ways, but in some ways, half their education is completely missing!

JL: Oh, sure; absolutely!

Regina: Part of the problem, I think too, is, girls go to school. Life happens at school. Life happens at church and they really don’t realize how much there is to do at home. They don’t know how to teach their kids communication skills, and how to get babies to love peeling carrots. If they love peeling carrots they will love to do everything else growing up. We think babies are supposed play, but you have to grow up in a home where you teach kids to be involved in everything, and know how to raise children!

JL: That’s a very profound point, and it can truly be said without any exaggeration that if Sarah Palin were really a Christian woman, we would’ve never heard of her, she would not have been the mayor of Wasilla. She clearly had political ambitions outside the home which means inescapably that your family will be neglected. Did you hear that clip where she was telling Couric, “Yeah, I’m a feminist. I was blessed to grow up in a household where gender was not an issue.” What does that mean?

R: Wow.

JL: They couldn’t tell the men from the women? They didn’t know who was a boy or a girl? You know we’re all just – nobody in here except just us human beings. There’s no assigned role to anybody, we all just do everything? That’s a mess! That’s not a Christian family. It’s a mess! That’s that way heathens behave.

Regina: Yes. You know, I’m not saying the women’s role is less in any way.

JL: Amen; absolutely.

Regina: If she is a Christian woman, she cannot be spared to be President.

JL: As a matter of fact, we are saying that in many ways the woman’s role, the wife’s role is more important than the man’s. This doesn’t denigrate women to suggest that they obey God!

Regina: Thank you, John.

JL: God bless you, your family and your work which is hopefully inside the home.

Gardening

Dinah can always find produce
even when I think I've gathered everything!

Our "Garden Girl"

Regina and I started on a walk,
when she saw the wheat straw was about to be plowed under
so we headed back for a couple rakes and a pitch fork.
Jodavid hitched the trailer to the forklift and joined us.
The sun had set and the moon was rising.

Hay Ride Back Home

Jodavid watched out for his passengers.
Regina jokes, "He drives better than me!"

How about unloading right here?

Straw for the Garden

Dinah's Pesto Sauce

Grind till fine in a Vita-Mix:

1 ½ c. raw cashews

1t. sea salt

~

Then add:

¼ c. extra virgin olive oil or Flax seed oil (our favorite)

½ c. water

Fresh basil: as much as you can grab in one hand out of a bowl full of fresh basil leaves.

2 cloves minced garlic

Blend.

Mix into a large pot of unsalted brown Rice or Millet. Or, put less salt and serve over any cooked vegetable.


Sunday, July 5, 2009

BIOGENESIS

This is a must see of the baby in the womb.

Images by National Geographic.