Leftism’s Disorder is Satan’s Plan

Cetera is an avid reader and friend of the Tree House, and an occasional commenter.  He currently resides in Wyoming, having given up on Colorado after 10 years and deciding to move his family to a more politically friendly state.  What follows is his effort at communicating Truths inspired by his Christian faith and the Spirit. Wolverines, listen up.
We are all here to support each other, to keep a watchful eye on each other and our Republic, and to fight the good fight when and where it is needed.  Each of us shoulders responsibility we assign only to ourselves, that we pick up voluntarily, and in each of our own ways we promote Truth and Justice.
In short, we are here to keep the faith, because at some level each of us feels that faith under assault or under siege. For a great many of us, we may never have put into words or closely examined the fundamental principles and truths that we feel inside of us, and what they mean.  I would like to have a discussion on these First Principles over this and several future posts.

 Satan’s Plan, and why Leftism is always disordered

I’ve talked a little before of Satan’s plan and how it is opposed to God’s plan of free will and love.  Satan’s plan was to force everyone to “love” God without choice, without free will, and without an act of the will. There is a parable of The Grand Inquisitor in the book “The Brothers Karamozov” written in the late 19^th century (more…)

MBOBs take root downward and bear fruit upward — can’t be helped — those things are built into them.
There’s benefit for any who will linger in their shadow and gain strength for the journey.
I wrote this in early July:

Maybe there’s something wrong with me but I am noticing there’s some gentle humor in grief. No tears in the last forty-eight hours but some discoveries that sort of make me smile.
Here’s my giant discovery of this day, [my DH] was totally right about this:

~”You can’t get it all done at once”~

(more…)

Cetera is an avid reader and friend of the Tree House, and an occasional commenter.  He currently resides in Wyoming, having given up on Colorado after 10 years and deciding to move his family to a more politically friendly state.  What follows is his effort at communicating Truths inspired by his Christian faith and the Spirit. The first two posts are linked at the bottom, this being the third in a series of five.

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We are all here to support each other, to keep a watchful eye on each other and our Republic, and to fight the good fight when and where it is needed.  Each of us shoulders responsibility we assign only to ourselves, that we pick up voluntarily, and in each of our own ways we promote Truth and Justice.  In short, we are here to keep the faith, because at some level each of us feels that faith under assault or under siege.
For a great many of us, we may never have put into words or closely examined the fundamental principles and truths that we feel inside of us, and what they mean.  I would like to have a discussion on these First Principles over this and several future posts.

Charity touches on a great many pieces of ourselves that we are striving to perfect.  Firstly, charity is an act or action.  We have to choose it and physically carry it out, making it at the very least an act of will. (more…)

Today’s MBOB is a repeat from two years ago and considering current situations, perhaps a good reminder. The immediate reason for doing a repeat is that I poured boiling rhubarb jam on my thumb yesterday as I was filling jars, using an awkward cup to pour because I couldn’t find the one I usually use. 🙁  so I can’t type so good. BTW, I’m the third admin this week to have personal experiences with the reality and pain of burns. Wanna speculate???? 😉
For some of you, I know this one is familiar ground: may I invite you to write some short story of one of your own MBOBs in the comments thread. Seriously – do it!
This MBOB  is a transcription of my mother’s travel notes from an 18-day trip to Copenhagen, Cairo, Beirut, Nicosea, Tel Aviv, Caesarea and Jerusalem in the spring of 1972.
Early in her planning, she asked each of her seven children if we thought it was a good idea for her to go on this trip.  We certainly did and were so glad she wanted to do it. Her notes reflect her own love of travel, made as they were ten years after Dad’s passing in March of 1962.  This was a significant “solo journey” for her, made with a tour sponsored by a Bible school in Seattle.
Her notes are evidence of her ability to maintain old friendships and enter into new ones; and they remind us that there is much extra-Biblical historical documentation of the journeys and works of Jesus, the Christ.  The Scripture references in the text were in her original notes. Every mention of a city or location is not bold, but the first mention and sometimes additional ones are, if it helps us to “see where we are.”  I have added a few  italicized notes for clarification.
This narrative brings into focus some detail about sites that are within the sounds of  today’s rocket attacks.
Many of the sites Mom saw in 1972 would certainly makes Hamas’ list of “Things To Blow Up.” (more…)

A childhood neighbor and friend has been a missionary nurse in Madagascar all of our adult lives. She’s seventy-two now. She retired from her paid position as a missionary a couple of years ago and now continues to work with the same hospitals and schools in Madagascar as a volunteer.
For all practical purposes, Madagascar became her home many years ago and, even though she has come ‘back home’ every couple of years over the last forty-five years to reconnect with her own family and her support base, her professional and personal relationships are in Madagascar.
She spent a couple of days with DH and I four years ago and we visited  about the work she was doing.  Her responsibilities have included teaching at the national schools. She helped organize the nursing schools and construct the curriculum.
She told us that it has always been and still is a never-ending battle to get the nurse trainees (and nurses on staff) to accept the reality of the need to wash hands, be careful about medicine dosages, keep accurate records on patients, and accept the realities of communicable diseases, recognition of serious symptoms, and providing treatment for diseases that are easily managed in early stages but become deadly if they are ignored.
When a new group of nurses comes in the problems of persuading them about wearing gloves for procedures, washing their hands between patients, being sure that equipment was properly sterilized, etc. were very similar in quality and quantity to what they were a couple of generations earlier. The culture doesn’t get it. She didn’t know why. All she knew was that was the norm, so they just kept on plugging away. (more…)

Cetera is an avid reader and friend of the Tree House, and an occasional commenter.  He currently resides in Wyoming, having given up on Colorado after ten years and deciding to move his family to a more politically friendly state.  He has been thinking through some basic principles inspired by his Christian faith and the Spirit, and has prepared a series of posts for our encouragement – timeless Truths worth thinking and talking about. This is the second in a series of five posts. Previous posts are linked at the bottom of the page.

What is Love?

If we proceed from an initial conclusion that we are to love both God and each other, how do we do so?  What is love?  First Corinthians tells us love is the greatest thing there is.  That is all fine and dandy, but what is this thing called Love that we are called to be, to espouse, and to do?
Again, the quotes I selected previously (John 3:16, John 15:13, Mark 12:30-31) suggest the answer.  Love is not an emotion or a feeling.  Love is not something passive.  Each passage involves action.
Spend some time with young children, and you will come to appreciate their points of view and marvel at the occasionally phenomenal and intuitive insights they have on life.  They cannot explain love, and they cannot describe it, but they can tell what is and is not love, and they can certainly name examples of love in their lives.  If you ask, they will tell you that they love their parents, or that their parents love them. (more…)

They left Denmark in the 1890s having served and worked, walked and loved. They had learned lessons around kitchen tables, kilns, and fishing boats.
Fishermen and tradesmen leaving home because there was no way to expand.
Some with a reputation because they had stolen something one day in their past.
Some with a reputation for being skilled who would be greatly missed. Some who divorced, leaving behind a small daughter who would disappear in memory and never surface to be recognized again.
They arrived in America to be greeted by New Yorkers who had been building, working, and sweating for one hundred fifty years. They stood for hours in the lines at Ellis Island or sat on their crates and trunks, and worried that they would be refused entry.
Those who greeted them or sold them railway tickets or directed them to the rooming houses had also internalized their own lessons around heavy wooden kitchen tables in Poland, Italy, Denmark, or Scotland – or perhaps in Brooklyn. Now those lessons were being worked out by New Yorkers, by Bostonians, by those who had Gone West.
They worked out what had been worked in. (more…)

Our friend, Cetera, left this comment in a thread earlier this week and I think it serves well as an introduction to his spirit and concern that we find ways to stand fast and encourage one another:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
We’re 3-0, now, in Murietta, at Bundy’s, and against the National Park/Memorial barricades. All were won merely by showing up, refusing to go away, and when threatened with violence, calling their bluff.Twice now, the Obama regime has brought in actual troops prepared to use lethal force against civilians, and were absolutely and thoroughly rebuffed without a shot fired. The third time, they never even deployed the troops.
Wolverines, we ARE WINNING! We’re on the march!. Each time we succeed, we make success more and more likely, and make it more and more difficult for the lawless, illegal Feds to exert force upon us. We are illustrating the Emperor has no clothes.
It is going to be a long, long march home. I’m here to tell you, we’re well on our way, and we are going to get there. We hold the moral high ground, and we must not ever cede it. This is not going to be an easy march. There’s going to be some fightin’, and there’s going to be pain and hardships all around. All the fury of all the storms the evil ones can muster will squall and break upon us. No matter.
Drummer, beat, and piper, blow. We’re marching home, together.

Cetera is an avid reader and friend of the Tree House, and an occasional commenter.  He currently resides in Wyoming, having given up on Colorado after ten years and deciding to move his family to a more politically friendly state.  He has been thinking through some basic principles inspired by his Christian faith and the Spirit, and has prepared a series of posts for our encouragement – timeless Truths worth thinking and talking about.

~ ~ ~ First Principles ~ ~ ~

Wolverines, listen up.  We are all here to support each other, to keep a watchful eye on each other and our Republic, and to fight the good fight when and where it is needed.  Each of us shoulders responsibility we assign only to ourselves, that we pick up voluntarily, and in each of our own ways we promote Truth and Justice.  In short, we are here to keep the faith, because at some level each of us feels that faith under assault or under siege.
For a great many of us, we may never have put into words or closely examined the fundamental principles and truths that we feel inside of us, and what they mean.  I would like to have a discussion on these First Principles over this and several future posts. (more…)

We finally got electricity in 1951. It was expected and though the poles had been installed for some time, the houses wired, and the wires strung, the promise of what was to come – didn’t. The impatience built and finally the older siblings thought it a stellar idea to just leave all of those switches in the house in the on position – just in case.
We came home from town one day and everything that could run was running. Everything that could light was lit. The juice was on!
Although it was an exciting moment my primary memory, as a seven year old, is how much it was simply taken in stride. We hadn’t missed it because we had never had it. Carrying the kerosene lamps up the stairs at bedtime and properly handling them so that we didn’t burn the house down was second nature and not considered a hardship. My mother’s sterling coffee pot and all of her pretty dresses did not fall short of anyone’s idea of living well. (more…)

Ninety years ago my Dad and five other farmers went together to buy a seeder, each of them contributing $9 to its purchase.
They shared the costs of equipment for seeding  in spring and threshing costs in the fall. When summer was over and harvest finished in the fall of 1924 Dad’s bill for his share of the threshing was $418. His farm expenses for the entire year ended up being a little over $1300 and his profit was $644.03.
The grain binder that was in his name only was repaired at least eight times in August: there are that many entries in his handwritten records that just say “binder repair.”
He bought almost four hundred pounds of twine during August and September that was destined for use on the binder, tying every individual bundle of grain that would be cut,  shocked for drying, and finally threshed as the threshing crew moved from farm to farm. That’s a lot of twine. These are all details. Dots. (more…)