The Merchants Hissed...Tyre Lamented

Now it is time for Tyre to be lamented.  When I read the words of this lamentation what I hear is Tyre being very full of herself.

       ‘I am perfect in beauty.’
    [4] Your borders are in the heart of the seas;
        your builders made perfect your beauty.
   ....
    [7] Of fine embroidered linen from Egypt
        was your sail,
        serving as your banner;
    blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah
        was your awning.
    [8] The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad
        were your rowers;
    your skilled men, O Tyre, were in you;
        they were your pilots.
    [9] The elders of Gebal and her skilled men were in you,
        caulking your seams;
    all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you
        to barter for your wares.

All these beauty and perfection that comes with loads of peoples from other nations in service to her.  Elishad, Arvad, Sidon, Persia and Lud and so many other places.   All these places working for her and giving her beauty.   Such was Tyre.   Even Judah and Israel traded with her.

So much of Tyre was caught up in the peoples that came to her and her beauty.   The seas were hers.  But all this is to be destroyed.

    [27] Your riches, your wares, your merchandise,
        your mariners and your pilots,
    your caulkers, your dealers in merchandise,
        and all your men of war who are in you,
    with all your crew
        that is in your midst,
    sink into the heart of the seas
        on the day of your fall.
 .....
    [31] they make themselves bald for you
        and put sackcloth on their waist,
    and they weep over you in bitterness of soul,
        with bitter mourning.
    [32] In their wailing they raise a lamentation for you
        and lament over you:
    ‘Who is like Tyre,
        like one destroyed in the midst of the sea?
    [33] When your wares came from the seas,
        you satisfied many peoples;
    with your abundant wealth and merchandise
        you enriched the kings of the earth.
    [34] Now you are wrecked by the seas,
        in the depths of the waters;
    your merchandise and all your crew in your midst
        have sunk with you.
    [35] All the inhabitants of the coastlands
        are appalled at you,
    and the hair of their kings bristles with horror;
        their faces are convulsed.
    [36] The merchants among the peoples hiss at you;
        you have come to a dreadful end
        and shall be no more forever.’”

Tyre is mourned. Her ships are lost, her merchandise destroyed, her power over the seas... gone. 
She was part of the lives of so many.
It is time of mourning for all who dealt with her.

Sadness and lamentations.

But we are not told why this happened to Tyre?   Was it her pride and greatness that caused her destruction?   She was of use to so many peoples and nations.  And now she is gone and "shall be no more forever.".

Makes me feel sad.

Why were they destroyed?
The implication is they trusted in their ability to be excellent merchants and travellers of the seas.
That they put their trust in their own beauty, and abilities to trade with so many different people groups above that of anything.   They gave no thought to matters of faith or of the Lord.

Tyre is a warning to us.   We need to see beyond our daily life here.  We need to see to matters of faith as well.
 
Faith matters.   It matters more than our smarts, more than our beauty, more than our ability to turn a clever buck, more than our ability to provide goods and services that others want to have.   Faith matters and we forget that at our peril.

The Christmas Mindset

Hymns

O come all ye faithful

While shepherds watched their flocks by night

Angels from the realms of glory

Angels we have heard on high

The race that long in darkness pined

Once in royal David's city

Silent night

Away in a Manger

Joy to the world

Ere zij God

Scripture

Philippians 2:5-11

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Sermon Notes

What attitude should mark the person of Christ in light of his coming?

Phillipians also called the letter of joy as mostly the letter is one of commendation.

How you think changes the way you live.

The mindset we should have
1. The mind of Christ in us
    - Christ is the pattern for how we should live if we believe in him
    - this mindset is in us already if we believe in him.
    - joined together
 So
1. Equality with God does not need to be grasped ....he didn't clutch his Godness to himself.
2. Made himself nothing...a human, a fallen type human,
Not a glorious before the fall human, but a human with the weaknesses brought about by the fall.  But he lived without sin.  A weak body, not a well heart or mind.
3. Became a servant.  We are called to have this same mindset as well.   To be a servant, not seeking after prestige, serving those around us.
4. So obedient he would die.   Obeyed his father in all things.
5. That death would be in grievous manner.  Obedient to the point so what needed to be done would be done.

We need the mindset to seek the good of others.  To make their good a priority.

Sin made us self centered.  This passage reminds us that this is not the way God intends us to be.  His focus is on helping us see the need to care for others first.

Remember this fact: death is punishment for sin.
Yet Jesus died. The sinless one.
His death was the direct result of his obedience.
He took something he didn't deserve.
Taking death on the cross,  in his obedience,  doing what needs to be done,  to save people from their sin.

So have this mind in you.  The mindset of Christ.   Be changed by having a mind of obedience.   His mind is in you, live it out.

Recipe: Cheesy Beef Panzerotti

This is a recipe I threw together one night.

Needed:
One Pillsbury Pizza dough package.  Rolled out.
Cooked ground beef that has been seasoned.
Mozzarella Cheese grated.

I didn't add anything else as I planned to share this with my Brazillian Student (who doesn't do veggies at all), but if I were doing it for myself I would add a bit of green pepper and mushrooms, or even some tomato meat.

Place your ingredients on one side, meat, veggies (if any) and grated mozzarella
Fold the other side over top.   Pinch the sides together well.

Cook it in the oven

What temp??   whatever you normally cook pizza at.  :)  375 I think.... Cook until it's well browned.

We both found it quite filling.

It makes for a filling meal.

Hymn Study: While shepherds watched their flocks by night

 This Hymn is based on this Scripture passage.
 

⁸ And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”   Luke 2:8-14

This hymn is attributed to England Poet Laureate Natum Tate.    Until 1782, it was the only Christmas carol officially sanctioned by the Church of England.  (source) All others hymns were taken from the Psalms.

Natum Tate and Nicholas Brady collaborated on a Psalter entitled New Version of the Psalms of David, which they published in 1696 to replace an earlier Psalter that had been published by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins in 1562.  The Psalter by Tate and Brady was adopted by the Anglican Church, and endured as the standard work for the singing of psalms for more than a century. (source)

Lyrics to 
While shepherds watched their flocks by night

While shepherds watched
Their flocks by night
All seated on the ground
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around
And glory shone around

"Fear not," he said,
For mighty dread
Had seized their troubled minds
"Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind,
To you and all mankind."

"To you in David's
Town this day
Is born of David's line
The Savior who is Christ the Lord
And this shall be the sign
And this shall be the sign."

"The heavenly Babe
You there shall find
To human view displayed
And meanly wrapped In swathing bands
And in a manger laid
And in a manger laid."

Thus spake the seraph,
And forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song
Addressed their joyful song

"All glory be to
God on high
And to the earth be peace;
Goodwill henceforth
From heaven to men
Begin and never cease
Begin and never cease!"

Field Trip: Children's Messiah

It was recently our delight to attend the Children's Messiah at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Ontario.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

One of the singers directed her solos at the children, holding out her hands, bringing out scarves for them to twirl around, smiling at them.   It was such a pleasure to see her delight in them.

The program was about an hour,  and was a joint social outreach programme of St Paul's Cathedral Music Department and Magisterra Soloists.   They did not perform the whole Messiah, but rather select portions with the conductor explaining different pieces to the children.  

They also had some congregational singing: Joy to the World and Silent Night.

The video below taken with my cell phone, so excuse the quality.

We had a nice sized crowd and they served hot chocolate and cookies afterwards

They will be doing this again next year, so if interested book Dec 2 to hear the Children's Messiah.

God's Response to Tyre

Today the whole chapter is one section, called prophecy against Tyre. Rather than print it all out, I've included a youtube video so you can listen to it being read. :)

 As always I will be using the ESV translation to actually do my study.  You can find that printed here.

Today it is Tyre's turn to face the Lord.  Why? "because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste"

In essence Tyre said "WOOT WOOT... here's our chance to grab some goods while they are down and out!!!"

Not good form.
Seriously.

Makes me think of looters after a city gets devastated by hurricanes or floods or fire.   How the nastiness just comes out of the wood work.

Learning gained from Marking Papers

A job I took on this year was marking papers.   For the most part it's fairly easy work, but lately it's also been fascinating work.   The students are writing papers on items that interest them.  Tonight I learned about two things (for lack of a better word) that just fascinated me.

Ball Lightning.
a video that teaches a bit about them.

and here's one in real life

Ball lightning:
The term ball lightning refers to a strange and unexplained phenomenon in which eye witnesses have reported seeing spherical balls of light floating in the sky. They can be the size of a dime or several meters wide. People often compare the brightness to that of a 60-watt light bulb. Though it’s called lightning, it lasts longer than a lightning strike and when it disappears or explodes, it can leave behind the odor of sulfur. There have also been incidents where the explosion was fatal.  They can appear anywhere, including inside buildings. 

Fascinating eh??

 Lion's Mane Jellyfish

World's largest Jellyfish.    I find it interesting how the colder the water is, the larger they get.   Smaller ones are found in warmer water.  Aren't they gorgeous?

 

Large individuals are often red or purple, while smaller specimens tend to be shades of tannish-orange.   Frequent denizens of harsh, Arctic waters, lion’s mane jellyfish are seldom seen below the northern 42nd parallel. Also, they gravitate towards the surface and almost never venture beneath depths of 66 feet.  (source)

I am loving this aspect of writing papers and can't wait to show my son in the morning!   :)

Art Series: Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum

I have to admit, when I first opened this book I thought...okay.. what kind of a weird little art book is this?  So I read it through, and then read it again because it intrigued in it's in weirdness. It's weirdness turned into a quirky way of  presenting different forms of art and ended up really intriguing
me.  I think it will intrigue you too.

 You might be asking, what makes this book quirky?

Well, it's done in a comic book format, it's a lovely hardcover book with great colour throughout from front to back.  The characters are a tad unusual, but they all have a great attitude and they all work with each other.

Arnold puts on an art show for his friends.   He is the collector and curator of the art museum, who wants to share his art collection with his friends.   He leads them on a marvelous adventure and they all learn much.

 Imagine if you could go to an art museum where you actually have to experience the art yourself.. like crawling through a tunnel to get to a Japanese tea room?  What if you learned how fascinating the colour blue was and how hard it was to prefect it?

Could you see a urinal as a piece of art?  Find it interesting to learn why ultramarine was used so often in pictures of the Madonna?  What about seeing the shadows or spaces of objects as the intrigue of artists?   I learned so much from this book, it was very neat.

At the close of the book, images of the actual art used and where they are found is depicted.   Some of the pieces were quite interesting, some more so after the reasoning behind them was given.

 It was so interesting to learn more about the different forms that art can take and some of the history and thought that go on behind them.  There is more to art than what you can just see.

I do have to tell you that I used this book with my art class....and they were delighted.  This book really resonated with my art students.   Check out the art project they came up.  :)

They started with circles and exploring that space, then someone got the bright idea of exploring what they can do with their hands, and then ...what if we mixed colours together and swirled them around, and what if we drop lids upside and ... it kinda went on and on from there.   It was a great finish off for our art class as the students had learned to work together and feed off each others ideas.  

 Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum

Written/Illustrated by:
Catherine Ingram and Jim Stoten

Published by: Laurence King

Size: 10.1 x 12.06 ·

64 pages
Ages 7 and up

Reviewed For: Raincoast Books.


Amazon affiliate links are provided for your ease of finding this quirky book.  It doesn't affect your bottom line and blesses my heart more than you know.  :)   No pressure, but if you are intrigued by the book, get it!  Links are below.
 Amazon.ca: Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum

Amazon.com: Arnold's Extraordinary Art Museum

Great Books for Middle School

I don't know about you, but finding good books for middle school in kinda important, to that end, I've been keeping my eyes and ears open for good books for my lad.

So I've been collecting book titles (as well as going through my own books from that age)  ... go figure.. I kept a bunch of them!!!   Moved them more times than I aught to have but there yeah go, a well loved book is just that eh?   First I will start with what have read, and/or what I have here.

Books Read or In Progress

Just finished this one: The Wolf Keepers... wow!!!   What a fantastic book this is that Raincoast Books provided me... just fantastic.   One troubled lad, a busy girl, a zookeeper and a bunch of wolves.  The wolves are dying... mysterious happenings are going on at night... and before you know.. trouble looms.   OH.. I want to tell you more but then there would be huge spoiler alerts!!!
Just go.. get it..read it.   I will assume that you will enjoy it as much as the lad and I did.  We enjoyed it so much that some nights we read TWO chapters!!!!

 
The Seeker of the Lost Cities... we have just finished book two of these series... hubby has read ahead to book four... we are looking for the audio of book three to continue our adventures.  Sophie is such a real character, and the plot is thickening between the council, the black swan, and the other group.   We are getting more on pins and needles about what is going to happen next.  Dex is such an interesting character and Keith (and the shiny silvery Alicorn) make us laugh, and all the other characters, so real and alive and you are just drawn in deeper.

 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

The lad and I finished this gem off last month, and it was a good read that brought out all kinds of thoughts and emotions.   Good characters development, a look into some of the realities of history all within a fictional context .





The Rangers Apprentice... we finished the audio up to book 10, but the lad is wanting to read the book for himself before we continue the series... so we are needing to be patient.  I bought the audios for book 11 and 12 as I WAS NOT being patient and have told him to HURRY UP so that we can all listen to it together.




What is he reading right now?   The Warrior Cat Series by Erin Hunter.  LOVES THIS series... I can't tell you how much cat-loving boy enjoys this series... he's one book into the second series (reading them in the order of the history not in the order of writing) and is talking about how we need to buy ALL the books that we currently don't have.  I'll buy them if you can't afford to okay mom?

 


I am currently reading through Miss Peregrine home for peculiar children to see if I'll let the lad read it or not.  I found the movie a tad alarming and the book just odd to read through, so the jury is still out on that.  Hubby wants to read it and if he likes it, it will be passed down to the lad.

Before I forget.. The Unwanteds.  Great series that we are both reading and listening to.   Alex and Aaron...Mr. Today and Secretary, Simba, Florence and the squirrleycorns.. interesting characters that are well developed.

Fablehaven.   oh my fablehaven... captured our thoughts and feelings and made us angry and happy and ever so pleased, and worried at times too... but it all comes good in the end.   Great series..  Brandon Mull...

 The Beyonders , another great series that we have enjoyed.   By the same author.  Smaller series at three books. We will be finding more by this author and reading them.


The Harry Potter series.. audio and written.  We like them all.. ONLY I haven't yet read or listened to The Cursed Child.  I leafed through it and it is written like a play so I'm left feeling a bit skeptical about it.   Anyone read it?   Was it any good???

Books from my younger years:
The Bronze Bow: one of the next books I'll be reading with him.

The Wrinkle in Time series.    I have long remembered these books and how they made me think.  I still wonder about the "X'd out"... I want my lad to like these books and enjoy them, I suspect I'll be reading them with him one of these days.

 The Narnia Series... we've read through the first two books but keep getting distracted.. once the new
year hits we'll get back on track again with book three.  Mind.. we are slightly frustrated as we lent out one of the books and it's disappeared so our set is incomplete.   It's frustrating because we had TWO full series and got rid of one because of our impending move only to be left with one incomplete series.   ARGH.


Books Already Planned that are New:

•  Maze Runner
•  The Brotherband Series is a spin-off of The Ranger's Apprentice-so looking forward to reading/listening to this new series.
•  The  Eragon series

Books Recommended:

• Through the looking glass, 
• The giver series.
•  Micheal Vey series by Evans
• Steelheart, Firefight and Calamity by Brandon Sanderson
• The Five Kingdoms by Brandon Mull
• Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan series, Mars series, Venus series
• Maze Runner
•  Tuesdays at the Castle
•  The Series of Unfortunate Events
•  The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by (starts with the Alchemist.)
• The Bartemaeus trilogy
• Firefly Hollow

Can you think of any that I missed?  Let me know in the comments below and I will add them.  :)

Sunday Sermon: Saviour, God With Us

Hymns

Come thou long-expected Jesus

Joy to the world

It came upon the midnight clear

As with gladness men of old

O come, o come Emmanuel

Ere zij God (Glory to God)

The first Noel

Hymns in italics are linked to posts talking about the history or the author of the hymn.

 

Review: It's Snowing in Hawaii

Just so you know, Affiliate links may be used in this post.  They bless my family. Thank you.

It was funny last night, hubby was looking at my pile of review books and said "It's snowing in Hawaii?"   And I said yes, he said that was funny because apparently.. it's snowing in Hawaii.  :)   So what better time than to bring you a really fun picture book for children called It's Snowing In Hawaii.

Mike Guardia has written a cute book.. sorry but that's what it is.  It's cute.
It answers the question.. what would happen if it snowed in Hawaii.  

And just what might happen?

 You might have bobsled teams, and snowmobilers, bear skins hula skirts, icicles in the palm trees and snowboarders on Diamond Head.

This book is cute and clever, introducing many typical Hawaiian culture pieces in a funny way.   Could Snowmobiles really be driven by the surfers in order to plow the beach?   Would the college football game be turned into a massive snowball fight?

It's fun, it's easy, it's has great illustrations to share with your children.

Perhaps we should all go ice-fishing in Kahuna Bay.  :)  

This is Mike Guardia's first childrens book.   I think he did a great job making an easy book to read with fun rhymes, great illustrations, and interesting way to learn about the cultural icons of the State of Hawaii.   Give it a go won't you?    

 
Written by: Mike Guardia
Illustrated by: Melanie Stephens
Publisher: Willow Clubhouse Books
Pages: 14 pages
Type: Children's picture book
Style: Hardcover
Private Review for Mike Guardia



Where can you find this great book?   You could check out your local bookstore, or get it online.

 Amazon.ca: It's Snowing In Hawaii

Amazon.com: It's Snowing in Hawaii

God's Job, Not Mine

    [15] “Thus says the Lord GOD: Because the Philistines acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice of soul to destroy in never-ending enmity, [16] therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the rest of the seacoast. [17] I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I lay my vengeance upon them.”
(Ezekiel 25:15-17 ESV)

 The Lord has already called to account the Moabites, the Ammonites and the folks from Edom and Seir.  Now it is the turn to the Philistines.

The Philistines have long been the enemy of the Israelites and God says because they "acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice of soul to destroy in never-ending enmity," that he will correct their behaviour.   He will cut them off, he will destroy them, he will execute his vengeance upon them with wrathful rebukes.   WHY?    So they will know that HE IS THE LORD.

That's what it always seems to come down to eh?

The need for the Lord to protect his people from the wrath of others... and to show them that HE is the Lord God.  None other.   

Their need for vengeance, their pettiness, their whatevers it might be against his people is NOTHING compared to the fact that HE is Lord God.  ONLY HE.

Makes me think eh?
About me and my stuff...how if someone does wrong against me sometimes all I want to do is get back at them (I see the same in my lad which helps me see what it looks like in me).

BUT that is not our job.

It isn't.

Vengeance is all the hands of our Lord and God.  HIS hands, not mine. 

He knows the heart of the person who hurt me and knows the full story.   It's in his hands to monitor and wreak vengeance if it is justified.  

My job is just to get on with being who God has called me to be... one seeking after his perfection.  One who draws other people into the joy of knowing who the Lord God is.   How does getting revenge fit into that?   It doesn't really.

This passage just helps cement that notion into my head.   It's God's job not mine, and when the time is right, he will mete out the vengeance that is required.  But he won't do it to make ME look good.  He will do it so that folks know that HE is God.   This is what it all comes down to ... the earth and it's peoples needing to know that God is .... GOD.   Lord of all. 

Find the rest of my devotional series on Ezekiel. 

Hymn Study: As With Gladness Men of Old

 William Dix is the author to this lovely Christmas Hymn. His father was a surgeon as well as a minor English Poet. He lived 1837-1898.

William Chatterton Dix, born in England,  was a marine insurance salesmen who loved to write hymns, writing more than 40 over the course of his life.   Some of his more well-known hymns include: What Child is This and Alleluia!  Sing to Jesus.

Mr. Dix wrote hymns for children, Christmas and Easter for the most part.  

It is said that he wrote this hymn on Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, while sick in bed.  (source)

Lyrics

"As with Gladness Men of Old"
1. As with gladness men of old
Did the guiding star behold;
As with joy they hailed its light,
Leading onward, beaming bright,
So, most gracious Lord, may we
Evermore be led by Thee!

2. As with joyful steps they sped,
Savior, to Thy lowly bed,
There to bend the knee before
Thee whom heaven and earth adore,
So may we with willing feet
Ever seek Thy mercy-seat!

3. As they offered gifts most rare
At Thy cradle, rude and bare,
So may we with holy joy,
Pure and free from sin's alloy,
All our costliest treasures bring,
Christ, to Thee, our heavenly King!

4. Holy Jesus, every day
Keep us in the narrow way;
And when earthly things are past.
Bring our ransomed souls at last
Where they need no star to guide,
Where no clouds Thy glory hide.

5. In the heavenly country bright
Need they no created light;
Thou its Light, its Joy, its Crown,
Thou its Sun which goes not down.
There forever may we sing
Alleluias to our King!

RHM School Week Reviewed

So this week, was better than last week health wise WOOT WOOT!!!   Getting tuckered still happens but I last longer than I did last week.  :)

Schooling happened quickly this week oh my the lad was just on fire.   Most days he had his basics done before 1000 a.m. (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday)

Oh.. on Tuesday though, no schooling done.  He spent the day with a friend while hubby and I spent the day in Port Huron.  I had a package on gears delivered to the SCC down there (Free stateside shipping) and so went to hobby lobby, the fishing store, the outdoor store and a few other places.  Hubby came home with a new target for arrow practice and I picked up a few STEM activities for the lad.

We didn't do much more than the basics this week though he did work on his book three days this week rather than one.

Wednesday we did the Foodbank and the lad managed to get his schooling done and help me too.  Which was really nice. 

Today we made this: