| | Hello xangans. I guess it has been forever since my last update. I have been so busy with closing out the school year, it seems my head has almost been spinning. :) If you wish turn up your volume on your computer. I changed my music.
 This a friend named Melody. Her mother is very talented at sewing and actually made this dress for a play she was in. We took a trip to Texas mid May. It was fun to visit friends in Dallas, Houston, and family in Beaumont. I guess once a Texan always one, right?
 This is me with my class. It has been an exciting year. I miss these kids already. I will get a new set next year.
A student said, "Miss Nance, I am gonna miss you, if we are not gonna come here anymore, who is going to take care of us?" :) I feel so loved.
On the homefront:
Rebekah is enjoying summer. Rebekah is still teaching piano, violin, and harp. She also has played harp at events in the area and abroad. She got a new dog. I call him Bernard. Rebekah calls him Cookie and sometimes Bernard. He a whole lot smarter than the pomeranian we gave away. As pretty as she was, she was not very smart or calm. She was wild.
  Dog looking like his owner.
Throughout June I will keep busy with teaching swimming, painting, and tennis. It is nice to have a paid summer off. I will be going to England in July for about a month. We will go to Scotland for about three days. I will be studying at Oxford and getting Masters credit through Southwestern Theological Seminary. It is so exciting, I can hardly wait! I will post pictures when I get back. I hope to take an excursion over to Ireland if there is time.
Lately I have been reading in Ezekiel and Ezra. Ezra, who was a priest for the people of Israel, was found in prayerful supplication in chapter 9. In chapter 9, it talks about how the Israelites did not separate themselves from the ways of the Canaanites, and several other “ites”. Ezra was pleading with God. At the beginning of this prayer he was reminding God of how gracious He had been to the Israelites, His people. This was a supplication of repentance, confession, and awareness of how they disregarded His commands. God used Ezra to speak to the people. He told them to separate themselves from the foreigners around them, even from the Caananite wives. God hated these alliances with people who were not His own. I was thinking about this: There were probably varying degrees of Canaanites, some better and some worse. They all had one thing in common, though - they were not God's own or did not seek to do His will. As children of the light, we are like Israelites. We need guidance of the High Priest Jesus. He leads us into all truth. We are called not to intermarry with the world. This could be marrying an unbeliever, or this could mean even compromising in one’s daily walk with God. (Such as being tempted to do the worlds way of dealing with life, or having a selfish, outward focus.)
God wants a people that are committed to be His people. All or nothing. The Israelites were God's people, but they made alliances with the “ites”. This joining caused them to become apart of the “ites”. Perhaps these Canaanites looked glamorous on the outside and had the right talk, yet their hearts did not love God. Some of those “ites” could perhaps have even claimed to be Christians. To not be an “ite” and be in the army of God, it requires repentance of alliances with the world, an abandonment of self and fleshly desires to Christ. God was so angry about those alliances, He actually wanted the Israelite men to leave their foreign wives. What compromise may God be leading you to leave? Are His commandments important enough to your heart, to follow, revere, and to love? On the other side is the Promised Land, which is far more satisfying than anything this world can offer. Until next time, Dana
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| | Posted 6/7/2008 10:18 PM - 49 views - 2 comments
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