Truck Doors

Late this summer I was driving to the gas station to pick up milk and had the girls with me.  As we're driving down the state route near where we live I thought I head a window open in the back seat.  I thought, well that's odd, I thought the window locks were on.  Both girls have a tendency to open windows in the back seat.  So I check the window lock button, it's on.  Uh oh.  I glance to the back seat, Ruth has opened the door and is holding on to it.  (She is still securely strapped into her car seat!)

I slow down, and it appears she's reclosed it.  We're almost to the gas station, so I slowly finish the drive there, make the turn into the gas station, and as I make the turn, the door swings WIDE OPEN. 

There I am in the gas station lot, unable to pull into a parking spot because the door open.

There's a gentleman and his kids at another pump staring at me.  A guy walking out of the gas station laughing like crazy, and I'm walking around the truck, closing the door, walking back around the truck and pulling into a parking spot.

Then I learned how to turn on the child locks on the doors.

I'm not judging you..

A month or so ago while driving the kids to evening activities Caden disagreed with me on the use of child locks on the back doors of the truck. 

He said "Mom's I'm not judging you or anything, but I think what you're doing is stupid."

He thought that if the child locks were in and we had an accident he would be trapped and unable to get out of the back seat.  However, my side is presented that Ruthie has grabby hands and likes to open doors while driving down the road.  There was a greater likely hood Ruth would open a door than an accident and the child locks were staying on!

Daniel

I finished the book of Daniel this morning. 

• King Nebuchadnezzar chose Daniel (Belteshazzar), Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishae (Meshach), and Azariah (Abendego) from important families of Judah to be trained and become his servants
• Daniel refused the King's food and win to not become unclean; the chief officer agreed to a 10 day vegetable test to make sure they didn't suffer for the diet change, and the 4 excelled and had wisdom when the king asked of them
• King Nebuchadnezzar expected his fortune tellers, magician and wise men to explain his dream to him and tell him it's meaning, when no one could, he ordered them killed
• Daniel prayed to God for guidance, then he explained the dream to the king; King was head of gold and each part below him are his successors, the 4th successor has a divided kingdom
• King Nebuchadnezzar is pleased, acknowledges God and gives Daniel and friends roles in his kingdom
• King Nebuchadnezzar put a gold idol for everyone to worship
• If they didn't worship the king would have them thrown in the furnace
• Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego refused and someone told the king
• The king turned the furnace hotter, had them tied up and thrown in by strong men who died from the flames just throwing them in
• The king saw a 4th man (angel) in the fire with them walking around free and called them out
• King Nebuchadnezzar commanded the worship God
• King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a great tree that provided much fruit and shelter for animals, birds and everyone but it was cut down and man was to live in the wilderness 7 years then a command goes out that God is all powerful and gives kingdoms to who he wants
• Daniel explain the dream, the tree is King Nebuchadnezzar, powerful, but it is all taken away and he becomes like an animal for 7 years
•  Because the stump of the tree stayed, King would return when he had learned God was powerful and ruler
• Then the dream came true
• After King Nebuchadnezzar, his son Belshazzar is king
• King Belshazzar gets cups from the temple for his banquet and a hand write on the wall, the wise men, magicians and fortune tellers cannot interpret it; his mother tells I'm to send for Daniel
• Daniel tells king he can keep his reward but will interpret it anyway
• God has counted the days of King Belshazzar's kingdom because he was not good enough and the kingdom will be divided
• King Belshazzar died that night
• King Darius comes to power and Daniel is one of 3 supervisors over the 120 governors of his kingdom
• Daniel was excellent at his job and the other supervisors and governors wanted to bring him down, but they found no fault with him
• Supervisors and governors talked King Darius into signing a law that for 30 days no one ma worship anyone but King Darius
• Daniel knew of this and still worshipped God, so they told the King on Daniel
• King Darius wanted to save Daniel
• Daniel was put in the lion's den, but mouth's of lions were closed by an angel
• Darius was distressed that night and went without food and entertainment and had little sleep
• The next morning Darius found Daniel unharmed and removed him from the den
• Daniel's accusers and their families went into the lion's den and the lion's crushed them
• Daniel was successful with King Darius and King Cyrus
• Daniel had 2 visions with unique animals and angels telling of kings and kingdoms to come and change
• Daniel prayed over Jerusalem for grace for their sins
• Daniel saw a vision of a man
• The north and south will fight
• King of the North worshipped power and strength
• The time of the end will bring back life forever or shame and disgrace forever, sacrifices daily will stop

Ezekiel

I finished the book of Ezekiel last week.  It took me awhile to get through this one.  And I like that I'm into shorter books now, that will seemingly go faster. 

• Ezekiel saw a vision of creates with 4 wings, 4 heads (eagle, lion human, ox), hooves and wheels
• God spoke to Ezekiel, he feels the spirit too
• Ezekiel was to share God's message to the people whether they listened or not; if they knew the message and disobeys their sin and death was their fault; had Ezekiel not shared the message, he would be guilty for them too
• Map of Jerusalem on a brick
• Lay on your left side 390 days for Israel's sin; then your right for 40 days for Judah's sin
• Bread and water will be measured and used
• Ezekiel cut his hair and divides it into thirds: 1/3 burns, 1/3 cut up around the city, 1/3 to the wind
• God's anger will destroy Jerusalem: 1/3 disease or hunger, 1/3 sword, 1/3 scattered
• Then God's anger will let them know how strongly He felt
• Death, capture and scatting of people will occur because of the unfaithfulness, evil and idol worship
• The end of the land and people is coming
• Ezekiel, by the spirit, sees a vision of Jerusalem and the terrible things the people have done and idols making God jealous and angry
• Angels came to mark those who complained of the evil around them and the others were killed
• Vision of creature was bright from the glory of God, coals of fire were taken from creatures and sent out
• Creatures were winged, had wheels near them that were 2 wheels, one crossway inside the other and moved in any direction; had hand and eyes that covered their bodies; had 4 faces (creature with wings, human, lion, eagle) the spirit was in the wheels and went everywhere with them - cherubim
• These were the same creatures seen before
• Evil leaders were gathered and the spirit told Ezekiel to say that they would be destroyed for their ways and know it was God
• Israelites scattered had become temple for them and God said he would bring them back - they must give up their idols and follow God or punishment will follow
• Ezekiel moves out as if he were a captive as a warning
• Ezekiel shows eating and drinking in fear
• Ezekiel's message is truly from God unlike the many visions they hear from false teachers that never come true
• Stop worshipping idols and don't lead others astray
• Jerusalem will be punished
• Goodness of a person can only save themselves
• The people are like the wood of a vine, not used for anything else and burned up
• The Lord was kind to young Jerusalem, as Jerusalem matured the Lord made her beautiful, but she started to trust her beauty more and used it in sin; suddenly Jerusalem forgot where they came from and the good God
• Judgement comes, but God has plans and promises for forgiveness forever
• The eagle plans a vine near water that will grow, but it dries up and dies and will not grow again
• Judah broke their agreement with Babylon by going to Egypt for help; Judah was destroyed
• God is fair and punishes each person for their sins, not their parent's of children's sin
• God wants no one to die, but for us to change our ways
• Funeral song
• Israel refused God
• Sin, uncleanliness, idolatry, uselessness defines Israel
• Sexual sins and uncleanliness will be punished
• Ezekiel was to tell stories for the disobedient people
• Cannot be cleansed until God's anger is carried out
• Ezekiel's wife suddenly dies and he is to follow God's directions for mourning and grief
• Prophecy - told of demise of cities to come
• Tyre funeral song - of all the ports and trades from/to
• Tyre king was boastful and proud and punishment will follow
• Punishment for Sidon coming
• Egypt didn't help Israel and will be punished and empty for 40 years - Egypt won't rule others again
• Babylon takes Egypt for their work over Tyre's battle
• Egypt will be punished and their idols destroyed
• More sadness, destruction and death
• Ezekiel is watchman for Israel
• We must let others know their wrongs so we may not be guilty of their sin
• We must not turn from out good ways or we die
• God will gather us as sheep and care of us in fairness
• Edom will be punished
• Israel will return, people will be cleansed, holy spirit and hearts of flesh
• Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones that come to life as God's people of Israel will with their hope
• Israel and Judah (each a stick) will become one kingdom (the stick in his had became one)
• Prophesy and destruction of Gog
• The new temple described
• God comes to Ezekiel in the temple and tells him before Kings had made His name unclean, this temple's design keeps the Lord's place separate from Kings - Ezekiel is to share the temple design and rules for others to obey
• Alter is given directions for offering to prepare the alter and cleanse/accept people
• The gate the Lord entered the temple through must stay closed
• When Ezekiel knew the Lord was present, he bowed down to the ground
• Rules for the temple and priest are given
• The land is divided and standard measures set
• Offerings described and rules for worship and the ruler set
• Small kitchens in each corner of the courtyard for boiling and cooking the offerings
• A rive runs from the temple
• The land borders are defined and distributed

The common phrase through this book was "the Lord spoke his word to me."

I also noticed the stark difference from the New Testament in that God seems to have different expectation of His people as opposed to others.  Where in the New Testament we are ALL welcome to come to him. 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I asked all 4 kiddos this question today.

Caleb wants to be a police officer.
Caden wants to join the circus.
Elinore doesn't want to do anything.
Ruth wants to be a surgery doctor or a baby doctor.