Elijah has several US states puzzles, and he has been working on learning the states. Yesterday, Kim informed me of his progress. So far this is what he says as he is putting the puzzle pieces back in their places:
"Texas, finger, boot, guitar..."
finger is Florida, I think, and Louisiana is boot, and Alaska is guitar. How funny is that?!
:)
So we went to this Mongolian Buffet resturaunt today, and they serve crayfish. I brought some to our table, and Elijah started to give me this speech about how yucky they were and how bugs are not for eating, and he was very distressed, well, initially. Then, suddenly he wanted to hold them, so we decided to take the picture of him conquering his apparent disgust...haha! After a few minutes he was talking to them and trying to get them to walk around like Uncle Dan's hermit crabs.
That's my boy!!
Well, we are all moved in to our new townhome, and we would like to give a HUGE thank you to the Posch's and Ford's for helping us move. We absolutely could not have done it without them!! We got most of the moving done late Friday night and earlier on Saturday, and then BONUS, the family stayed Sunday to help us clean the old joint. So again...many, many thank yous!
We spent the week settling in and we have only a few more boxes to unpack, so we are doing pretty good from that standpoint, but what is really cool is that Elijah likes the new place. He likes that we now have two floors to live on, so he gets to travel up and down the stairs. He's already rolled a few times, but thankfully, the stairs are well carpeted and Elijah just gets right back up.
Well, it's been a long week, but hopefully we'll get to post again soon. Happy week having!
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James 1:14, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”
Galatians 5:16-17, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”
I am starting to believe that people are deceived because there is something in them desiring the deception. First, if Satan has the ability to deceive all men, then all men would be deceived. Obviously he does not have that kind of power. So what does he look for in a man that would allow for a deception? Satan is looking for something in the heart of man where the deception can begin. It would be impossible for Christ to deceive any person, for there is nothing in Christ that the flesh desires. True Christianity cannot deceive, for again, nothing in the flesh wants anything at all to do with Christianity.
Christianity has one message for my flesh: “Move over!” So what is it that makes man’s heart open to deception? I believe it is the desire of a heart that says, “I can be God.” Rephrased, it is the desire of the heart to be independent from God. This is why the Mormon religion is so successful; it is cleverer than the early Catholics who embraced the local gods of the people, or just gave them different names. As you know, many “Catholic” countries are rife with blends of Catholicism and witchcraft. Haiti is an example. However, the Mormons offer something more: man can actually become a god. Man can invite his wife to his celestial kingdom, where she can be eternally pregnant. This “deception” has incredible drawing power to those who have suffered under the hand of their unjust god, or who have served a god all of their lives. After all, who would not want to believe that he could become the one who hands out punishment and receives gifts from others?
Such a person is deceived with a ludicrous teaching, but moving past the cobweb to the spider, we see at the root a heart that says, “I want to be God.” Deceptions all offer the flesh something, and Christ is always taking something away from the flesh. When someone converts to Mormonism, or any of the other “-isms,” I never feel that the Mormons won one while the Christians lost one. Instead, I believe that the person, in believing the deception of Mormonism, actually revealed a heart previously hidden that is anti-Christ. Again, we see that nothing is working against us. God is permitting all the “-isms” for the revelation of hearts. The germ of every cult is this promise of keeping the flesh alive through some kind of God-playing. The amazing thing is that it holds any attraction, when it is so much easier to have a God than to play God.
