“The RoseBouquet”

After king Herod died, an angel told Joseph in a dream to take Mary and the child back to Israel. They went, and they discovered that Herod’s son, Achelaus, reigned in Judea, Joseph as afraid to go there. Also warned in another dream, he withdrew his family to Galilee, and settled in the town, Nazareth. All this to fulfill the prophecy that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.

This tells us Joseph was a spiritually sensitive man, who heard God’s directions in his dreams, and he always obeyed them promptly. In this particular instance his fear that it was not safe to be in Judea with a son of Herod as king also became a factor that is recorded.

All this happened naturally, but they were part of God’s plan to fulfill things He had foretold many years earlier through His prophets. Just one detail, in fact, that Jesus would be known as a Nazarene, or coming from Nazareth.

What might this have to do with me today? Or you?

God has a plan for my life too, and is it possible that He will guide us into that plan by the intuition and natural fears and desires He has given me? I do believe at various times He has guided me that way.

This implies the importance then, of paying attention and being spiritually alert. Key moves and directions into God’s plans will come in soft subtle ways, and if we are not obedient right away, we may miss some important turns in the road of our lives.

PRAYER: Oh Father-God, I want to follow Your plan for my life, even though I’m not sure any prophets foretold details about me years and years ago, still, I do want to know and do Your Will. If You plan to reveal those to me through the intuitive ideas, and the dreams and desires of my heart, or through natural, common sense decisions, then I want to pay closer attention and obey. But oh, do keep me from following my heart against Your best wishes and plan! Keep me from errors! Amen.

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. How can you be sure you would like an e-book before you pay for it? In a store you’d stand and read a couple of chapters first, right? Sit down, take your time; READ six chapters of Ruthe’s Secret Roses for free!

When King Herod realized that the Magi were not coming back to give him the scoop on the new born king, he was furious and gave orders to kill all baby boys up to toddlers of age two in Bethlehem and the area around it.

Joseph had already fled with Mary and Jesus, so they were safe, but many other homes were in deep mourning for their baby boys. This fulfilled a prophecy by the weeping prophet, Jeremiah, which he spoke centuries before; “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

This didn’t just happen to accommodate Jeremiah’s sermon and make it come true. However, young families who knew of and understood that prophecy could make sure they lived elsewhere.

This does show up the wickedness of Herod, and the stupidity of over-reacting. Ouch! Sometimes I do that too! There are times I’ve over-reacted, and caused more trouble than there was before. (I never dreamed I’d be in the same class as that horrible Herod!)

This passage doesn’t say what to do about this, but let’s think for a minute. When someone implies I’m not working as hard as I should, I’m all over them with an angry reaction. Why? Because I know how many other things I’m doing, many of which I see as more important than the one item this person focused on. He judges me by his standard, and I judge myself by what I know, but I hold him accountable for all I know.

Now there is great danger that I’ll punish the other person for not knowing all my priorities, and create another backlash of anger. This pendulum is going to make bigger and bigger swings if I don’t stop myself! (Mind you, a total stall is bad too).

PRAYER: Oh Lord, to think I can identify with that horribly wicked Herod today! I have sinned and need Your forgiveness, but also help to control my reactions. Especially in my writings for that’s where I wield the power of words and influence others.

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. Do you eat novels like chocolates? Here’s one with both weight and excellent flavour! For a satisfying treat, read Ruthe’s Secret Roses

Yes, the Kids (my sister Elsie’s kids and partners and their kids) were home last week. But it all happened so fast, that I was afraid I might forget they had even been here. (said tongue-in-cheek). They had come for their other grandpa’s funeral. No, not Dad’s. Their grandpa Peters in Rosthern, the town next north of us along this # 11 highway, had been sick with cancer a long time. Earlier this summer the doctor told them that he would likely only have another 4-8 weeks. Well, he got longer, but he was finally released to go Home to Heaven too.

Jasel, the younger, but taller at 6′ 4″ is a working architect in Penticton, B.C. I had not seen him since his sister’s wedding three years ago. He’s filled out a bit, but he’s still a very good-looking young man. His previous girlfriend is now history, but he had a new one to show off, and Riah is such a sweet person. They arrived on Wednesday evening to spend the night with us. We had a lovely visit, and on into the next morning, when Jasel and I made Kringle (knotted buns) like Mom used to do whenever she heard he was coming. All because he always loved them so much with her homemade raspberry jam.

I also had him take the air-conditioner out of the bedroom window, as that’s a bit hard for Dad. But before we knew it, they were leaving to join the rest of the Peters clan at his aunt Phyllis’ home.

Dad and I went to the viewing that night in Rosthern, and there saw Jalise. Byron was resting out in the car, and the kids were at Aunt Phyllis’ place. So we didn’t’ see them until the next afternoon after the funeral, which Dad and I also attended.

That morning I remembered that Jasel had hinted that the gift he liked best from me was a bucket of my granola. So I quickly made a big batch, and took it along. We would not be seeing Jasel and Riah again after the funeral, so I insisted on a group photo shoot outside the church.

Saturday, just for supper and a bit, Jalise and her kids, Calvin and Elise came over to our place. A bit of a whirlwind visit as the kids are very lively,but I remembered to snap some photos there too. You can see these on this photo story page; Family Moments

The daily devotional blog/ezine, The Kingdom of Jesus, a study of Matthew, went off on Monday as planned with 10 subscribers to the ezine. When I checked right after, I discovered that two more had subscribed over night. That number is slowly creeping up, which is very encouraging. Yesterday one person even wrote for permission to use the second piece in a print newsletter for Nov/December.

In case you missed the announcement last week, you can find that daily blog right here at my RoseBouquet blog site, Daily Devotional or you can subscribe to get it by email at; Kingdom of Jesus. These are all short single page brief devotional studies of just a verse or paragraph in Matthew, where I look at what it means, and how I will apply that lesson to my life.

One thing I did last Friday was send out an invitation to subscribe to this new daily ezine using my RoseBouquet mailing list. An interesting thing happened. A small batch of subscriptions came in quickly, but I also saw a lot of bounces! That means, notification that those addresses on my RoseBouquet mailing list are duds! Nobody there.

I also got a notice from my web site system, saying that my one mail box was full and overflowing. I went to look and lo, there are 588 emails, almost every one is either a bounced message (over 4 months) from this ezine, or spam that got filtered out. Whoa! This is too much! So now I’m going to check that again after each mailing and carefully pull out the addresses to delete from my mailing list.

If you should hear some friend complain that they don’t get my ezine any more and they wonder why, ask them to look into the address they subscribed with, and to get back to me. I really don’t want to delete someone who IS somehow getting the RoseBouquet and counting on it, and I hope it doesn’t happen, but… who can tell?

I lost some hours from work every day last week, but am catching up as much as I can this week. One thing that is halting my makeover progress is this - You’ve heard of email (S)wamp (P)oured (A)t (M)e, right? [read the capitals]. Well, now those fools are doing it with robots that attack our forms on our web sites. I’ve been getting dumps of that garbage.

I asked at my host’s forums what to do about it, and was advised to take several tactics. One involves adding an authentication image to all my forms. Since robots can’t read the image and write in the numbers/letters, only humans can use the forms. So this week I’m hunting for a good Captucha script that will do this, and then I’ll have to add that to all my forms on all my sites. Quite a chore!

Yesterday I learned that those same rascals are throwing this stuff at the search engines with hundreds of web pages. Ah, but now they are pulling the lion’s beard; the lions will fight back!

Do you need small Christian gifts, or prizes to give out? You can get simple, unisex Disciples’ Crosses made of horseshoe nails and coloured copper wire at wholesale prices from my 90 year father, who makes them in his spare time. Assorted colours available, and can be made to order.

Do you need good kids’ gospel tracts to hand out at the door on Halloween night? Check for the ones we have at Western Tract Mission’s site, Halloween Tracts

Okay, I’ve finally got photo story pages up with scenes from our garden over August and September. (Are we really in the last week of September already?)

I’m afraid I may have used too many photo. I did leave out a number, but when in a hurry, it’s harder to decide what to leave out. You may skim over them quickly.

The two new photo story pages up in my Author’s Arbour are for August and September; Garden in August
Garden Sweep in September

You will find links at the bottom of each of these pages, to the previous three months, May, June, and July.

After the wise men left by another route, the Lord told Joseph in a dream to take the young child and his mother and go to Egypt because Herod was going to try to kill him.

Joseph obeyed immediately. They left that same night.

This passage points out that this would fulfill the prophecy (in Hosea 11:1), “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”

Obviously, the Lord God was coordinating things from Heaven, even though baby Jesus was helpless to do anything, and Joseph and Mary didn’t know all that was going on either, and may not have thought of that particular prophecy being fulfilled until much later.

Joseph’s important part was to be open to hear God’s directions, and ready to obey immediately. He didn’t even wait until morning light. Which was a good thing, because even the neighbours could honestly say, “We have no idea where they went. Last night they were here, and this morning they are gone! They never breathed a word about going away.”

Am I like this Joseph? Do I hear God’s guidance and obey it promptly? I wish I could say a resounding yes. But listening to my own spirit I hear an embarrassed silence or unsureness.

PRAYER: Lord God, I would love to be like Joseph, and I know that in times past I have been eager to do Your bidding instantly. Now I have got myself into so many things there is hardly time to listen, never mind hear Your directions.

Please clear out a path for You to get Your directions and guidance to me, so that I may hear and heed Your voice. I can tell it will be for my good, and part of Your ultimate plan.

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. You’ve heard of power naps at work, right? You rise refreshed, bright and alert. Take a break to refresh your spirit with a good inspirational story.

This is not a Hollywood story. Once Herod found out from the prophets where the Ruler was to be born, and he had secretly told the Magi and asked them to find the child and bring him word, they were on their way again, following the star which guided them.

They did find the right home and the child, recognized him as the one designated by the heavenly star, and worshiped Him, and gave Him gifts of gold, myrrh and incense.

These wise men found accommodation for the night, and in a dream were warned not to go back to Herod, so they didn’t keep that appointment.

It seems that when these magi went to ask in the city of Jerusalem for the newborn king of the Jews, they were switching to a secular mindset in their search. If they had stayed with their original guide, the star, they would not have had trouble finding Jesus.

If this were a Hollywood script, they might have gone back to tell Herod and been killed. Rather God protected these worshipers by warning them with a message to detour.

I’m afraid there are times I detour to do things the secular way, instead of continuing to follow God’s guidance. Fortunately, as soon as I come back to worshiping Jesus, He guides me by His Holy Spirit again. Sometimes He even protects me from the consequences of my foolish mistakes.

PRAYER: Oh God, help me to keep my eye on the Jesus, the bright and morning star, and the words by which You guide me. Help me not to stop and lean on secular ways of thinking and seeking. I confess I’ve done that far too often!

Thank You too, for protecting me numerous times from the consequences of my mistakes! I did not deserve those rescues, but I guess You remembered that I have resolved to worship You and have You for my God.

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. You don’t really have time to read on the couch, but if you’re like me, you do read snatches on the run, and somehow make time to read a GOOD book completely.

So how can you be sure this Ruthe in my book, Ruthe’s Secret Roses, is not some kook? Read the six sample chapters

A Devotional Study in Matthew,

Using my old favourite STUDY METHOD:

Read until I spot something unique that speaks to me. Then answer 3 questions;

What does it say?

What does it mean?

So how does this affect me; what am I going to do or believe?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt.1:1-17 The Women in Jesus’ Royal Line

1. This gives the genealogy of the generations between Abraham and Jesus Christ, but on the side of his foster father, Joseph. There are fourteen from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to Christ.

2. It means that Joseph was accepted and counted as Jesus’ ancestor, even if not born directly from Joseph’s seed. Maybe it also means that genealogy matters to God. It is possible to go overboard, but if God thinks it’s important enough to record these people and even little personal notes about who the mother was of some, like Judah whose mother was Tamar, Solomon whose mother was Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. See these non-Jewish women were included once they became part of the blood-line.

3. I already have respect for genealogy, and think it important to include all who marry into the line, or are adopted. But I feel like this validates that attitude. I’ve been saying that I keep trying to give genealogy up because I don’t have time for it. Maybe I need to change that to simply saying, “I hardly have time for it anymore.” When it comes up I end up dealing in it anyway.

Perhaps the Lord will be gracious and allow me to complete and develop my genealogy website after all. Once I’m caught up with other projects more urgent.

I’m also reminded that God can see us not just as individuals but as part of many generations of people, and that what we do affects the ones who follow behind us.

PRAYER: Thank You, O God, for these reminders today. You see us as part of a whole over many centuries of people. Help me to be a bright and holy spot in all my generations, even if they stop with me.

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. Wish you could have a heart-to-heart talk with Jesus?

Ruthe, in my novel, “Ruthe’s Secret Roses” does. All the time, where ever she goes, she’s having a running conversation with the one she calls Lord, or my Best Friend. You’ve got to meet Ruthe! AND her Secret Roses.

If you’d like to know me better visit my sites;
Ruthes-SecretRoses.com and - my Blogs
and Also, Intimacy with God
Plus! BouquetofEnterprises.biz and AGodlyInheritance.com

We’re having an extra busy week. On Monday we attended the funeral of Minnie, a delightful woman from our church. Yesterday we were in the city to do some shopping, because we are expecting company from B.C. My nephew Jasel Peters is to arrive either today or tomorrow, and will be staying with us until after the funeral for his other grandpa in the next town north of us, Rosthern. His sister Jalise and her husband and two young kids are driving out, and will be on the road all of today and tomorrow. They are presently booked to stay with a cousin, but will be visiting here too. Naturally, Dad and I will attend Bill Peters’ funeral as well.

Besides that, the five days of heavy rain last week have raised the water table so that we have about 6-8 inches of water in the potato pit in our cold storage room! The pit is just a hole about 3 x 5 feet, and about 3 feet deep, dug down through the cement floor and lined with heavy plywood. It is not cement-lined, which explains why the water can get in so easily.

Dad borrowed a sump pump, but it hasn’t really worked, so the last two days, we’ve worked together to bail out the water and pour it down the sewer. It’s a good thing Dad didn’t just pour the potatoes into the pit this time, but kept them in large buckets; so they have not been damaged and were easy to lift out.

I’ve already suggested to Dad that we ask Jasel for advice. He’s been trained as an architect, and although that means mainly drawing up plans for buildings, I’m sure they also learn a lot about sound structures for a building, and maybe even how to solve problems like this.

Our neighbour’s house, just three yards over has the same problem. On Monday evening there were three men shoveling their broken, mucky cement floor out the window and into a truck.

So yes, flooding of homes happens even on the flat prairie lands, but we have so much to be grateful for, and taking time out to spend with “the kids” and “their kids” is bouying us up. Jalise often refers to our place as “home.” We look forward to their visit home!