Tag: God

Posted in Ephesians

Ephesians 5

Posted on by Christy Petty

Not living ‘as Gentiles, unbelievers and being kind to others, being pleasing to God, not greiving the Holy spirit….5 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Christ is OUR sacrifice to God,

3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know,[a] that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. If unclean, speak foolishly, coarsly,covet, worship anything other than God, fornicate you will receive nothing from the kingdom 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.  These things, even if someone tells you they are ‘ok’ are not, this is disobedience to God. Do not do as they do, do not be with these people that do such. Remove yourself from this influence.8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit[b] is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. You did as those of the world, but now you know better, do as the one you follow, Jesus Christ.11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.  Do not have a relationship with those who are worldly, instead show others, their evil, their darkness, by your light, your choosing to not be as they. Expose the evil for what it is.12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.  ? “them” want to keep it secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.14 Therefore He says:  to expose the darkness/evil by our light(Christ) makes the evil known so that others can see it for what it is.

“Awake, you who sleep,Arise from the dead,And Christ will give you light.”

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, don’t blindly follow, know what you are following. Use the brain God gave you16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. KNOW what you are doing,understand educate17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; it is a waste of time of self, can not produce anything drunk. but be filled with the Spirit, let the Holy Spirit take up your time,  your life, not a waste.19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things all things, all things, all things be thankful for. to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.[c] Give way to other believers, in respect of God. With the leading of Holy Spirit, by choosing to speak God’s word, Psalms, worship with by giving thanks for all things, we are submitting to others… In addition to submitting to all believers22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. Respect your husband, obey your husband place him as the leader of you just as you place God in this place. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.Appreciate, the sacrifice made for you by your husband, just as you appreciate the sacrifice Christ made for you25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,Christ died for the church, took on pain for the church, was scourged for the church, and did not deserve. Christ did not do any of this to get anything from us, it was a gift. This is sacrificial love  Husbands are to love wives without the gaurantee of return. 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, Christ did this to benefit the church, to cleanse the church27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. This removed any ‘wrong’ covered the sins of the church, Christ no longer looks on these, only the perfection he has covered the church with 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. The wife, being presented as unblemished by the husband to himself shall be cared for and loved as he loves and cares for himself.  29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord doesthe church.  30 For we are members of His body,[d] of His flesh and of His bones.  Beleivers are a ‘part’ of Christ. A wife is a ‘part’ of the husband. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”[e] 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. I think this is saying -not as in sex, but in spirit, just as Christ is one with a believer 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.– Husbands choose to love wife, to allow, to give to, to care for, to indulge, to discipline, to nurture just as you do yourself, you can not be selfish, because you are giving to her as yourself.  Wives, know your husband as the head, the one who sacrifices self for you.  All of this ‘submit’ /love/respect is a choice. A choice between walking as a believer in Christ or one in the darkness. 

What do you think? 

Posted in Bible Study, Ephesians

Ephesians 2:1-22

Posted on by Christy Petty

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 2: 1  And you He made alive, by Jesus Death and Resurection who were dead in trespasses and sins, everyone2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, Satan 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. All man follows Satan and are sons of disobedience (Satan) and Christ died for all, those who continue to walk with Satan are DEAD, beleivers USED TO. 

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  God provided Christ to save us, to resurect US from death8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.  Gods grace, love, saved us nothing we did, 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. the good works prepared by God11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision – Jews, God’s chosen, made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. No longer considered alien, nor uncircumcised, now ‘belong’ to God as do the circumcised, as if ARE14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, the curtain between man and the Holy of Holies 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, the LAW is gone so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both Gentile and Jew, Circumcised and unCircumcised,  have access by one Spirit to the Father.19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.  Gentiles, those not of inheritance of Abraham,Jews , those of The Law,are now the same as, Christ’s Death was for all that believe in him. All are of THE inheritance through Christ

Posted in Evan

Evan K

Posted on by Christy Petty

You may wonder why Evan, my third son, should get a category of his own. Well, he is a category of his own.

Evan, now 22, was born with a craniofacial deformity, plus.

To look at him there is not/was not anything greatly apparent,

but looks   can be deceiving. Pierre Robin, is the first label he received, after he was born with a cleft of the soft palate, shortened chin, and tongue crammed down his throat. Since then many more labels have been attached. Sticklers, Aphasia, Dysarthria,Duanes Syndrome,Apraxia, to name a few.  Pierre Robin is a congenital deformity, the mandible (chin) does not grow with the rest of the facial bones as it should, this causes the tongue to be pushed back and up, because it is constrained by the chin- this causes the mouth to form around the tongue, which results sometimes with a cleft of the palate. The airway, throat is also compromised because the tongue is pushed back inside the throat. — Then other things can happen. 

Just after birth, Evan turned blue when he cried, because his tongue would draw back and cover his airway. Almost immediately Evan learned to not cry.  The nurses though wanted him to cry, so he would clear his lungs? pink up more? , what ever the reason is nurses want to make a new-born cry. This is when they found he had the cleft and tongue issue, as I said, it was not apparent at first glance.

When the nurses/doctors did find the malady, they whisked Evan away, to figure out what to do.  Needless to say, in Midland Texas, Pierre Robin was not an everyday occurrence. I think the encyclopedia (I saw them reading from the book) they read the information of Pierre Robin and treatment of  was not the revised edition. The treatment(s) they used was criticized highly by the surgeon we ended up seeing a few weeks later, in Dallas.  

The doctors, trying to help the airway stay clear, tied Evans tongue down. They ran a string (by needle) underneath and through his lower jaw through his tongue and back out the bottom. The first surgery they had a plastic bolster against his jaw/skin, to keep the string from ripping through. Two days later ,when they redid the tie, because a nurse had sucked the sutures out, they used an actual button.  When first presented with the surgery, they would be doing within 2 hours of his birth, we questioned the mechanic logic of it.  We thought they would need to cut the underpinnings of the tongue in order to pull it out and lay it flat.  They said that just tying down the end of it would be enough.  Later, when the surgeon in Dallas was examining Evan, he called the doctors in Midland Neanderthals and explained for that surgery to work they would have had to cut the tongue free and  pull it flat, and that no one did that surgery anymore.

We do not fault the doctors in Midland, they did their best. Evan would have been better off without the surgery, he now has tongue nerve damage and it is suspected by other MD’s one of the 2 surgeries left him with stroke damage from some oxygen deprivation from the compromised airway.  That actually would be the anesthesiologist responsibility. Also it would take the ultimate control of all things away from God, if we said ” If they had done this or that he would be ok.” As it is, for some reason, God only knows, Evan has some learning difficulties, language difficulties, nerve damage and a very special soul.

Today, Evan is still labeled as having learning disabilities, language being his primary difficulty.  Right now,  Evan is HORRIBLE with managing and understanding money, more so than the average 22 year old male.  Right now, he is not able to get a job that pays more than minimum wage. He has not found a way to present himself to others that proves his potential, yet.

Right now, Evan wants to spend as little time as possible with us, especially me, I did say he is 22.  We are building an apartment for him on our shop. Not because he can not live on his own, but it would be difficult financially for him to do so , with the limited income he is getting right now. Someday he probably will move further away.  We see him still everyday,usually, if he has work, because he comes over to our house to shower. (We have not put all the plumbing in,yet. Evan was not willing to wait so he moved in about 2 month’s ago) If I run to town, and with Keith leaving for work at 7 AM, Evan can work it so he does not see us at all.

Evan does drive, has been since 16, like most guys. Evan knows cars. We used Matchbox cars for incentive, math grouping games. Many of the lessons (homeschooled) were planned with cars as the subject.  When we started drivers training the driving books became his literature.  Evan is a good driver, a nerd driver. Drives the speed limit, always, blinkers, always, reminds me when I do it wrong, always

People who know Evan really like him. He has something about him that is quite charming.  Evan has a few friends he does hang with regularly, they too, have some disabilities. They do not live average lives, either, never will. Evan is the only driver in the group, and sometimes will take them to the movies, but most of the time they are at someones house playing video games. These guys are video pros!!  It is what they CAN DO.

Most ‘average’ people enjoy Evan’s company, and will speak with him in church or various social events, but that is about it.  A few times he has gone to movies or out to eat with someone ‘average’  but not on a regular basis.  No one ever asks him to hang out or spend time with them. The charm only works for a short time, I suppose.

As Mom, I like him anyway, and his charm is completely wasted on me. I push him pretty hard to not ‘give into’ his disability, to rise above it. Sometimes I am right and sometimes I am just scared.  I see him as someone settled with who he is, because ‘What’s the Choice?’.  I see him sometimes wishing he could be just a bit more average, when he buys his ‘Muscle Milk’ and dyes his hair black.  But mostly, I see a person who is stronger, more confident, and content with who he is, than I am with myself.  He does not concern over his dress, his hair cut, his weight. He does not worry about what he will say or if he can pronounce it correctly. Evan does not have to have the newest iPhone, most friends on Facebook. He has no girlfriend. No one calls him to go anywhere. He may never get the opportunity to reach his full potential and be more than a sacker. Evan has so much less to be content with than I, yet he is.

That surgeon who ranted about the inadequacies of the doctors who worked on Evan in Midland, told us what to do with him after we removed the ‘button’.  He said, “Lay him on his stomach and hope he keeps breathing.”   We did lay him on his stomach, but we did more than hope. We prayed. We trusted. We knew God brought an amazing man in this world. Several things have come against him and God has brought him through it all.  He is made to do great things.