There’s a little cleaning up to do (I can’t get the blog name to change and I have to figure out blogrolls, etc. here)

and a few other things to play with. But first…grocery shopping.

I’m Ellen, mom to two teenagers; I live, worship and work in Grand Rapids, MI.

I spent most of my life in Arminian churches and about 2003 “Reformed”. I am currently in a Christian Reformed Church.

Below is my “beginning-ish of March, 2007″ photo

I work full time with post-high-school students with cognitive disabilities for the public school system and I’m about half way through some sort of degree that could go CIS/special ed/regular high school – maybe. Anyway, I’ve got most the gen-ed stuff out of the way. This semester, Access and Dreamweaver.
Blogging since June 16, 2005; blogging at MzEllen.com since July 1, 2006.

I’m going through Titus 2:4-5

(ESV) “…and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”

(NIV)”…Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”

(NASB)”…so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.”

(KJV)”…That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”

1) who is the “they”? “They” are the older women. God has given these wise, dear women a job – a vital job! We don’t grow old in a vacuum and if we (I’m sort of a “tweener”) don’t listen to those who are older – and given this job by God – we shouldn’t expect to be listened to by those God has instructed us to teach.

2) What are these wonderful teachers supposed to be modeling? I’m going to go with the Greek:

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The Blog of Beauty Awards are here!

Here are the categories:

Best Artistic Content
Has the best use of artistic content (photos, graphics, etc.) in daily entries. (This award is for daily content, not overall blog design. Overall design is given in two other awards.)

Best Biblical Exhortation
Does the best job of bringing biblical truth and exhorting others to walk closely with the Lord Jesus. (Blog does not have to be exclusively a theological blog.)

Best Crafts and Projects
Has the best craft and project ideas.

Best Design – Contemporary
The most beautiful blog of a contemporary design.

Best Design – Traditional
The most beautiful blog of a non-contemporary design.

Best Discussion
Has the best discussions in the comments sections.

Best Encourager – General
Has the most encouraging blog content.

Best Encourager for Singles
Has the most encouraging content for being a godly single. (Blog does not have to be exclusively about singleness.)

Best Encourager for Wives
Has the most encouraging content for being a godly wife.(Blog does not have to be exclusively about marriage.)

Best Frugality
Has the best content regarding frugality. (Blog does not have to be exclusively about frugality.)

Best Group Blog
Has the best content of a blog written by a group of three or more regular bloggers.

Best Homemaking
Has the best content regarding homemaking. (Blog does not have to be exclusively about homemaking.)

Best Homeschooling
Has the best content regarding homeschooling. (Blog does not have to be exclusively about homeschooling.)

Best Humor
Has the best humor.

Best Meet for a Mocha
The blogger you have never met and would most like to meet in person for a mocha.

Best Motherhood
Has the best content about being a mommy. (Blog does not have to be exclusively about motherhood.)

Best Quiet Spirit
Demonstrates a beautiful, quiet spirit through her blog entries.

Best Recipes
Has the best recipes. (Blog does not have to be exclusively about cooking.)

Best Variety
Has the most enjoyable variety of content.

I’m off work for two weeks; we have a truly crazy summer schedule. Anybody who has been around people with autism knows that “change is bad” and we have an “on again, off again” schedule. For now, I’m off. And there are a few things on my mind.

1- the role of women in home and church
3- possibly communicating with my old church board
2- getting a website
3- putting my blog on that
4- getting all of my appointments in order (dental, optical, medical, academic counseling, telecourse tests, church)

5- getting my family (the big family/my siblings) to agree on a week/weekend to go camping.

Uh…yeah.

I don’t like them. I got a C on my last test and not even a high C. I could get a C in the class – a first for me – lower than Spanish.

I am convinced, though that this professor included things on the test in an order that they did not appear in the book, or in the films. Meaning the test happened before the matieral was presented.

I start another telecourse next week.

After posting photos of my kids feeding the stingrays, I found a photo (love CUTE animal photos) of a stingray…

I’m posting a comment from Moonshadow and following up in a post – the only reason is that she asked good questions for a follow up and it’s going to be long and have links – I’s way rather do the links in a post than in a comment, since Blogger does it for you in a post…

anyway…Moonshadow said…

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basically, the clerk for the board of elders says that my letter will be read at the board meeting next Tuesday. He’ll get back with me after that.

It is said that the church lags behind the world in trends by about 10 years. Unless the church actively rejects the world’s view, how will the church “see” things in 10 years?

Some of these I found amusing, some are outright troubling.

I do want to be able to explain to a 9-year-old boy in terms he will understand why I think it’s OK for girls to wear shirts that revel in their superiority over boys

The Urban Institute finds that the children of divorced parents – when removed from the mother’s home for neglect or abuse – are often put into foster care, rather than into the home of the father.

The New Gender Gap: From kindergarten to grad school, boys are becoming the second sex

there are more, but these are starter…

I’ll say this right up front, this is the time of year for churches to have their synods (or whatever they choose to call them). And the issues comes around.

Polygamy hasn’t (although a few years ago the denomination I was a part of made a decision that they would no longer call polygamy a sin – this was because in areas where polygamy is legal and/or common, they didn’t want to tell a new convert he had to divorce a wife). The other two issues are very much around.

“Drinking alcohol is a sin”.

Those who claim this (the new SBC resolution says not only the consumption of alcohol is sin, but also the manufacture and distribution).

These people would not only have kicked Christ out of the wedding at Canna, they would have forbid Him from performing His first miracle. I think that is somewhat of a quote that came to me from somewhere that I can’t find now but the link was here.

“All divorce is sin.”

God paints a “word picture” of Himself as a man who is divorced describes Himeself as being divorced. (Jeremiah 3)

“Polygamy is a sin.”

God paints a “word picture” of Himself as a man describes Himself as having a covenant relationship with two wives, demonstrating the relationship between God, Israel, Judah.

There is a vast difference between how things originally were and what humans have made things to be.

Use of alcohol makes a heart merry. Abuse of alcohol destroys families.

Biblical use of divorce is unfortunate, but it is Biblical. And even an unbiblical divorce is not an unforgivable sin. Abuse of divorce leads to a nonchalant view of the marriage covenant.

Use of polygamy can (in certain circumstances) be used to solve population problemsand work problems. Abuse of polygamy leads to abuse of women, jealously and strife.

We should be careful not to call “sin” what the Bible does not call sin.

We should also be careful to understand that even if the Bible doesn’t call something “sin”, what humans have done with it can be (and many times is) sin.

It is important to know the difference

The first place we have to go with that question is to God.

But before we ask the question, we have to be honest with ourselves – if we don’t like the answer, are we willing to change?

Where does “sameness” lead?

does “submit” really mean “submit”?

OBEY?

Eph 5:22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Should an unbeliever be able to look at a “Christian” marriage and see the relationship between Christ and His bride reflected?

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.

Should an unbeliever be able to look at a “Christian” marriage and see the relationship between Christ and His bride reflected?

How many of us really (REALLY) take this seriously?

Husbands, do you really feel as though your wives submit to your leadership in the same way that the church submits to Christ?

Wives, do you feel that your husbands “wash you in the Word”, able to present you radient?

How does this / would this make you feel?

Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Differing views are welcome and desired.

A woman’s place…might not be a place.

A woman’s place is not a location, it’s a state of mind. A state of being.

I don’t care what the world has made “feminism” into. I don’t care what the world thinks a woman should be. I don’t even care what the “church” or other Christians think women should or should not be able to do. I’ve seen a few posts out there (Christian and otherwise) that have addressed this issue – and I felt like I wanted to say something.

Unless they/you/I can support that position from the Word – don’t state it with authority.

I have a picture in my brain of an ideal woman.

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I’m posting this because I’m not the only one – and this isn’t the first time for me…and now I’ll remember where I have the information tucked away.

Firefox crashed and I lost half of my bookmarks

So, here’s how a friend told me how to get them back…

Close firefox
go to

my computer
-> C Drive
-> -> Documents and Settings
-> -> -> my file
-> -> -> -> Application data
-> -> -> -> -> mozilla
-> -> -> -> -> -> firefox
-> -> -> -> -> -> -> profiles
-> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> whatever that file name is .default
-> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> bookmarkbackups
-> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> pick the most recent one with all of your bookmarks (probably the largest one)

either “crtl + c” or “edit” then “copy” to copy that backup.html

go back up the chain one level to “whatever that file name is .default” and delete the current copy of “bookmarks.html”.

“edit” the “paste” the old file

change the name of the file to bookmarks.html (the same as what the old one was named)

open firefox and see if it worked.

If you had lost all of your bookmarks, you shouldn’t be any worse off than you were…if it works, it saves a lot of grief.

Okay – I really messes up.

Somehow I managed to erase the last half of my sidebar template…the part with all my blogrolls.

Oh well…tomorrow is another day – and I might not get to it until Tuesday…

and then there was my weekend…

I’ve written a letter to the board of elders of the church I just left (my membership is still there for “political” reasons).

The letter is posted on my “alternative” blog, it will get dropped off today and another copy is in the hands of somebody else who will need it eventually.

that last post was 250!

AND…(drumroll) – tomorrow is my one-year blogging birthday!

(maybe not)

Every year my parents and siblings have a weekend camping trip…for the first time, one of my siblings isn’t going…for the first time most of the “older cousins” aren’t going (3/6 of them are out of the state now and one – my son – is working all weekend and the other is with my sister who has other plans.

That leaves my daughter. My sister that isn’t going has a daughter that Manda most often hangs out with, so Manda is not a happy camper at this point. The next cousins are three girls – all young.

Manda tried to get a friend to go with her – actually she asked a lot of friends, but this seems to be a popular weekend to be away. Camping, Mexico, Mackinaw…and so on.

We’ll see how it all works out…

Down to the Wire at my Old Church.

Today, I’m writing a letter to the board of elders at my old church. The letter is including a lot of things, some of which I’ve blogged about here. This is an important point – I’m not blogging about anything that is not public knowledge – this church is not hiding what they are doing,

Maybe it’s better put “hiding in plain sight”. Many people aren’t familiar with the website, so they wouldn’t know that piece. Many people aren’t familiar with Pentecostalism so they wouldn’t know that piece. Many people aren’t familiar with the language of “modalism” so they wouldn’t know that piece. Many people aren’t familiar with the words of “healing” ministries so they wouldn’t know that piece.

But when you put these things together, I believe it means trouble in a Reformed Church.

The first piece is setting the groundwork for obedience to church leaders, no matter what. I want to make it very clear that I’m not advocating rebelling against leaders for a minor reason.

What I am talking about is questioning a planned and deliberate departure from the policies of the denomination of which Sunshine is a part. My higher leadership is not the pastors of Sunshine Church. My higher leadership is the denomination of which Sunshine is a part – the Christian Reformed Church of North America.

Here are the steps to “follow the leader – no matter what”

- God put the authorities in place

- To question the authorities is to question God

- To question the authorities is to be in rebellion of God

- If we don’t follow the leader, God will punish us (deal with our flesh/give us a curse)

The “leaders” in all these contexts are pastors, not denominational leaders.

Indeed, in the past months, as I’ve discussed these issues with members of Sunshine, I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody has said, “But will you submit to the leadership?”

Here’s a first look at the website pieces. A cached webpage, “Prayer Thoughts” by Pastor Dave, is found here.

December 30, 2005:

People of prayer like Daniel are those that are pursuing intimacy with God – Intimacy that is possible through Jesus Christ and only through a yielding to the Holy Spirit. What comes out of this intimacy is a trust in the authorities that God puts in our lives. Sometimes these authorities act and talk in ways that don’t represent us, yet to trust God is to submit to their leadership.

If you rebel against this prayer thought, ask God about it, he put the authorities in place.

A friend put it this way: anyone in an “authority” position is on a mission from God (all apologies to the Blues Brothers). If “we” see an authority that is acting, talking and leading in ways that don’t represent “us”, submit anyway.

This “follow the leader no matter what” mindset is mirrored in “apostle” Sherman Shelton’s (Firehouse Ministries) message at Sunshine Community Church in January.

The text is “if you love me, you will keep my commandments” The entire message is posted here (MP3) – the January 8 service.

Shelton says: “I have summed it up into something else. This is what God is saying to us. The love God is looking for is a love that chooses to keep its eye on the authority in your life”

(at minute 29) “We as the body of Christ are better off stepping in the wrong direction unified than to be right and side against what God is doing.” (Question: how can you be “right” and side against what God is doing?)

Shermon Shelton outright said that if we question the leadership, we are second-guessing God and it is “possible” that God may give us a little curse.

This also reflects the “prophecy” of the “prophetess” Corine given at Sunshine Church: “God says whoever does not cooperate with the unity that is between the two of you God says if they do not obey by the Spirit He will have to deal with their flesh.”

Again, I’m NOT suggesting that disobeying leadership is good – BUT – my higher leadership is not the pastors of Sunshine Church. My higher leadership is the denomination of which Sunshine is a part – the Christian Reformed Church of North America.

I think I’ve found a “church home”. Here is something very interesting – the first time I visited, this was the banner that runs long the ceiling from the back to the front of the church (one on each side of the sanctuary. (They do change them with the season and it’s changed now, but this is the one that was there the first time I went.

next…my son has been in the process
of choosing a tattoo and has drawn one
that he likes – this one —————>

(Yes, I know it’s a pretty popular design,
but it is the one that he favors…