Happy First Day of Atumn

Hello and Happy First Day of Autumn.  If you live in America or anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere it is Autumn.  Happy Spring to the rest of you.  I love this time of year.  I love the falling leaves, the cooler days and I love the holidays we'll be having.  

Halloween used to be one of my favorite days as a kid.  I rarely bought a costume I usually made one up.  We'd always have a party at school and Mom's would bring cookies, candy, popcorn balls and cupcakes.  There would always be candy corn in small paper candy cups too.  Then on Halloween night my Dad would drive us around in his truck.  A bunch of neighborhood friends would join my sister and I in the back of our truck in search of penny candy and an occasional popcorn ball or a large candy bar.  These days I enjoy going to our Church for Trunk or Treat in the back parking lot and seeing my grands and all of their friends dressed up in cute costumes.  

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  I love the food, the family, the thankfulness of it all.  I even loved it as a kid when my Mom would paint at least one room with led based paint and our turkey would taste of paint.  Yuck! I think after a few years of kind of ruining our dinner she stopped painting at Thanksgiving.  I'll never forget that taste.  It was terrible but I still loved the holiday.  I liked the long weekend and how relaxed we all were.  I used to have family over now and then when our kids were young.  I loved having them all come to our house.   Now that it is just my husband and I, we don't often make an entire dinner for ourselves and our kids mostly go to their wives families since they have large families who gather to have a good time.   

Another thing I love is that it is Apple time in Oak Glen.  It is a beautiful and fun place to visit.  It is a great place to get apples, pie and raspberries.  There are many apple farms to pick from and the variety of apples is interesting.  My folks took me there as a kid, my husband and I took our boys there and now our boys take their families there each year. 

What is your favorite thing to do in Autumn?  Did you have a favorite costume as a kid and a favorite dish someone made for Thanksgiving?   I hope you are looking forward to the holidays, family gatherings and food of this fun season.  Happy First Day of Autumn. ~Grammy Sue

Proverbs 25:11 (NLT)

Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket.

Revelation From Job

Job 42:3b, 5 (NKJ)

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know . . . I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.

God has had me read Job about 5 times over the past 3  years.  I love it but I don't really understand it.  I am not sure anyone understand it entirely, and that makes me feel better, at least I am not the only one.  

Recently I graduated from Bible College and one of my desires is to go back over all the classes at a slower pace.  I want to rereading the handouts and the notes I took of the lectures.  I started today with the class The Doctrine of God and Man.  The bible and "Foundations of Pentecostal Theology" by Duffield and Van Cleave were our books.  But first I decided to read the chapter on Job that is in the book "An Introduction to the Old Testament and It's Study" by Robert L. Cate.  This book is out of print but if you can get a copy it is a very informative and well written book on the Old Testament.  Be warned, it does not have an index.  

Reading though the chapter in Cate's is where I realized that no one really knows what Job is about.  Me especially.  Reading Case's information gave me new insight and appreciation for Job.  I did decide on one thing today as I read it.  What I decided was that I really don't think the book is about the suffering man goes through.  Many scholars think this is the point of the book.  I think that suffering is in there because that is what man goes through.  Satan is like a roaring Lion looking to kill steal and destroy us any way he can and we suffer a lot.  It's a given, especially in light of how much Jesus said we would suffer.  

What really caught my eye is what is said in Chapter 42, the scripture posted at the beginning of this post.  Before all of this happened Job had talked about a God he didn't know and he didn't really understand.  He had sacrificed to Him and believed in Him but he had not heard God before.  He didn't have a personal relationship. Now that God had talked to him Job realized how little he knew about God, and he knew that God was much more wonderful than he had originally thought.  Now that he had heard God and he had seen Him, so to speak, his eyes were open.  

That's us?  It's me, at least.  I say things thinking I know God but every now and then I get a growth spurt and realized just how this new knowledge has also made me realize, once again, how little I know of Him.  It is a nice revelation to me.  I like knowing that there is always a surprise and a closeness I can keep striving for and at each new level I feel more loved, and more happy, and more hopeful, and more able to see God.  I have greater faith and I feel more blessing.  That is something to praise God for.   Job suffered as we all do and now knew God in a more real way through all his suffering, and he sounded very happy to have learned it. 

It may be simple to many but that is what I feel God showed me today as I read Job, and Cate's book.  What books have you been reading and what has God been showing you? ~Grammy Sue

Happy Grandparent's Day

It's Sunday and it is a good day to start a blog.  I had a blog before and it was titled Suzie Utoozie but we had to cut back on expenses so here I am.  Free blogs are great.  This is fine and I am glad to be here.  

First things first.  Happy Grandparents Day.  If you are a Nana, a Baba, a Papa, or a "Little Grandma/Grammy" and a "Little Grandpa" like my husband, Dan and I, you are blessed. You know the joy of having Grands.  We are blessed with 5 and it is the best thing that ever happened to us.  So, Happy Grandparent's Day. 

Second, because it is Sunday I want to remind you to pray for your Pastor or Pastors this week.  They need our prayer and support.  There is an old saying, "If you want a better Pastor then pray for the one you have."  It's a good thing and will bless them more than you know. It will bless you to intercede for them. A good place to start is with 

Psalm 1:1-3 

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law 

he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by 

streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and 

whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers. 

I hope your Pastor does prosper and you are blessed because of it.  Have a wonderful Sunday and first day of Autumn.  (Note added Sunday Sept. 22)