Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Teacher Thought # 1

 My Empty Heart

 

Ephesians 3:16-17 I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. NIV

 


When I taught in a Christian school, I often wore a heart-shaped locket. No pictures adorned its interior.

A second-grade girl noticed this jewelry and asked what was in the heart. I let her open it so she could see.

When she looked inside, she gave me a somber look and, with the wisdom that comes from young children, said, “It’s not good to have an empty heart.”

Later, I noticed she was concentrating on a project at her desk.

Between classes, my young student brought me a tiny paper heart with the name of Jesus written on it. She gave it to me as a gift so my heart wouldn’t be empty anymore.

It’s been many years, but I haven’t forgotten her words. “It’s not good to have an empty heart.”

How is your heart? Empty or full of Jesus?


Thank you for visiting with me.

God bless you always.

Kathi


Something to Say

 It looks like I quit posting on this blog around the time I got Covid. It wasn't terrible for me. I had a fever of 99 degrees and I blew my nose more than usual. Having natural immunity at that point got me through the rest of the pandemic without incident.

I wish I had kept writing, especially as the library was closed for a fairly long time and I could have written more.

Instead, I cleaned the house down to its toenails and got rid of things I never use.

Now that I've retired I'm writing more seriously. My first book in a while is finished and online at Amazon. I'm including my affiliate link here.

https://amzn.to/3tOcDFV


The second book is in the editing/clean up process. Another hundred pages and I can hand it off to my formatter/cover designer.

It will be called Stories They Don't Teach in Sunday School: Wanderings.

Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus in the New Testament. Each piece in the Tabernacle foreshadows Jesus. The rock that gave water to the people in the desert actually was Jesus. I can prove that by something Paul tells us in the Epistles.

The cover design will be like the first book but it will be red, like the Red Sea and the blood waters of Egypt, and like the Passover Lamb.

I'll be sure to let you know when it is available...if we're still here.

Thanks for visiting with me.

God bless you and may Jesus come back soon.

Kathi

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Listening

I've been used to read the Bible - usually in the NIV or Living Bible versions. They are easy to understand and I can read through the Bible in about 6 months if I apply myself. I have an NIV large print Bible that I bought in 1975. I've literally read the covers off of it and duct taped it back together.

No, I don't want a new one. I have tried more than once to use a different copy of the same book. My old one is the one I used to teach out of. It has notes and marks on almost every page. I'd have to go through a new version page by page and transfer all my notes.

For the last year and a half, I've tried something a little different.

Youtube has various versions of the Book in audio. I've been listening to the King James Version while I crochet prayer shawls for hospice. I might miss some things if my mind wanders or if my pattern requires that I count stitches more carefully than usual, but sometimes I pick up points that I'd never seen before. Then I go into my print version and do more studying on that section.

It's very interesting to see one thing and hear another. I'm learning things I'd not picked up on previously.

Try it sometime. Listen to someone read God's Word into your ears and see if a phrase or sentence doesn't pop out in a new way.

"Faith comes by hearing and hearing  by the Word of God." Romans 10:17

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Exciting Times

Everyday I listen to what's happening in the world and look up, because my redemption draws near. (Luke 21:28)

Lately archaeological finds are catching my interest. Things that have been hidden - not just for centuries, but for millenia - are coming to light.

For so long, the tensions in the Middle East and Russia have prevented people from doing a proper search for Noah's Ark. I remember a couple of documentaries in the 1970's and 80's about possible finds, how the ark had split in half and partly slid down the mountain.

I even remember on of the grocery store junk papers proudly displaying the headline "Noah's Diaries Found". Seriously?! It's been 4000 years of hard weather on a mountain top. Unless it was enscribed on stone tablets like the Ten Commandments, it wouldn't have made it this long. Even then, stone crumbles after so long of enduring heat and cold.

Les found a very interesting video on Youtube and I just watched it. It shows a deep scan of a formation somewhere in the "mountains of Ararat". The nearest village is called The Village of the Eight. The scan shows cavities in the formation which are empty or mud-filled like rooms and the ship's ribs are easily picked out.

Is it Noah's Ark? A ship laid out on top of a mountain nowhere near any water? You decide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10diTOvszYU

May God bless us all.

Kathi

Sunday, August 27, 2017

"Next Year in Jerusalem"

Europe is no longer safe for young women or Jews. 

Barcelona's chief rabbi told the Jewish population to move to Israel because "Europe is lost." He told them that it was better to get out earlier rather than later and not to make the same mistakes other populations of Jews had made in thinking that the hatred would blow over. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/barcelona-terror-attack-chief-rabbi-meir-bar-hen-jews-move-israel-europe-is-lost-a7903111.html 

Haaretz had an article that claimed a spike in immigrations from the U.S. after Trump was elected. I understand that many Jewish people have a liberal bent and would not appreciate living in a Trump America. But I also sadly watch the rise of Neo-Nazism and other hate groups who believe, as Hitler did, that Jews are ruining the world. Those people will succeed in making American Jews consider relocating to their ancestral home. http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.769037

After World War II, the U.S. used Operation Paperclip to import many of Germany's finest minds including Albert Einstein. Out of this program came multitudes of inventions and discoveries. The list is too long to reproduce here. We can start with the Sauk vaccine for polio which made a common illness a rarity. Here are a couple of lists:

And this list found on Yelp:
Here's a partial list of Jewish Inventions :
Jeans, Lipstick, the Ballpoint Pen, Contraceptives, Instant Coffee, Television Remote Control, Traffic Lights, Scotchguard, the Flexistraw, The Atomic Bomb, the Thermonuclear Bomb, Genetic Engineering, the Nuclear Chain Reactor, Virtual Reality, Hollywood, the Sit-Com, the Long Playing Record, Sound Movies, Videotape, Color Television, Instant Photography, Holography, Psychoanalysis (Freud), the Theory of Relativity (Einstein), Cafeterias, Discount Stores, Pawn Shops, the Shopping Cart, the Ready-to-Wear Clothing Industry, Prozac, Valium, The Polio Vaccine, Radiation, Chemotherapy, the Artificial Kidney Dialysis machine, the Defibrillator, the Cardiac Pacemaker, Vaccination against the deadly "Hepatitis B" virus, the Vaccinating Needle, Laser Technology, Google, the Wire Transmission Facsimilie (FAX) , the Microphone, the Gramophone, the Microprocessing Chip, Optical Fiber Cable,  Laser, Cellular Technology, the Videotape Recorder, Drip Irrigation, Scale Model Electric Trains, the Pager,  the Walkie-talkie,  Refrigerated Railroad Car, High-vacuum Electron Tubes, the Incandescent Lamp, Kodachrome Film, the Blimp, the Adding Machine,  Stainless Steel, Tapered Roller Bearings. 

If you think about it, just as the U.S. benefited from importing many German Jews, so too will Israel gain from bring their people home. And other nations will become poorer for it.

God's word says it will happen - and we watch it fall into place in the daily news. Maybe you have to look at sources from other countries since our news services are too busy bashing our sitting President, but the facts are apparent.

And as badly as the surrounding nations want Israel to disappear from the map, it will not happen. See the end of Amos chapter 9.

From Jeremiah 31

“Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt,
            O virgin of Israel!
            Again you will take up your tambourines,
            And go forth to the dances of the merrymakers.
      5“Again you will plant vineyards
            On the hills of Samaria;
            The planters will plant
            And will enjoy them.
“Behold, I am bringing them from the north country,
            And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth,
            Among them the blind and the lame,
            The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together;
            A great company, they will return here.
      9“With weeping they will come,
            And by supplication I will lead them;
            I will make them walk by streams of waters,
            On a straight path in which they will not stumble;
            For I am a father to Israel,
            And Ephraim is My firstborn.”
      10Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
            And declare in the coastlands afar off,
            And say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him
            And keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”
“They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion,
            And they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD
            Over the grain and the new wine and the oil,
            And over the young of the flock and the herd;
            And their life will be like a watered garden,
            And they will never languish again.
New American Standard Bible

From Amos 9:

Israel’s Restoration

11 “In that day
“I will restore David’s fallen shelter
    I will repair its broken walls
    and restore its ruins
    and will rebuild it as it used to be,
12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
    and all the nations that bear my name,[e]
declares the Lord, who will do these things.
13 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman
    and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine will drip from the mountains
    and flow from all the hills,
14     and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.[f]
“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.
    They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
    they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant Israel in their own land,
    never again to be uprooted
    from the land I have given them,”
says the Lord your God. (NKJ)

May God bless us all,
Kathi Linz














Saturday, August 26, 2017

Business as Usual

I listen to some of the prophecy teachers, and I have noticed a couple of things.

Many of them have books to sell. Others are pushing a kind of prepper mentality. They are affiliates for survival food and implements.

I find this annoying because I want my teachers to tell me something that will edify me and not line their own pockets. I understand that is becoming a rare thing in any school at any level. As a Christian with the gift of teaching, this makes me sad. It shouldn't be that people are deceived in the name of Jesus for the sake of money.

If you think that things are bad enough in the world that you need to stock up on food and water, you may be right. If North Korea starts flinging bombs around, it might be an excellent idea. If riots are coming to a town near you, by all means be ready to shelter in place.

If however, you think that you need to stock up to survive the Tribulation period - and if you believe Jesus will take us out of here and you are watching for Him - don't bother.

Here's what Jesus Himself said:

37As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at thecoming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Matt 24: 37-38 Berean Study Bible

27People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.… 
Luke17:27-29 Berean Study Bible

Please note that it was business as usual up until the moment of the disaster. There was no warning like the collapse of the social structure or economic failure. The warnings came from the men speaking God's word - Noah and Lot both warned people that they needed to listen to God. None of the people did. Only those who were paying attention to God and were ready to move at God's word were saved. 

So take this to heart:


The Return of the Son of Man
(Matthew 24:26-31; Mark 13:24-27)
25There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves. 26Men will faint from fear and anxiety over what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28When these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Luke 21 NIV

When they BEGIN to happen, watch.

God bless us all,

Kathi Linz

Friday, January 20, 2017

Pillar of Cloud Over the Golan Heights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5I-QKuF9OM

Shooting began on the Golan Heights about a month ago when this happened. (See the video link)

Please notice that is an event unusual enough that all of the soldiers in the area are taking pictures and recording the cloud. The cloud came down between Israeli soldiers and the shooters on the other side of the hill. It hung over the Syrian side and never crossed the border onto the Israeli side.

Two things come to mind.

God said that when all the nations of the world turn against Israel, He will personally defend them,

When Cecil B. DeMille filmed "the Ten Commandments" he depicted the cloud as a thin finger of flame. Looking at this reminds me that God is so much bigger and more powerful than we ever imagine He is.

God bless your day,

Kathi