Dear Youngman:

Greetings.


>... Within minutes, He did something to my spirit that broke me-- I
> realized my utter dependency on Him. Before then, I did not realize
> chastening could be internal.
>
> This let me pray a prayer which I knew then that the Lord heard,
> something like, "Lord, do whatever you have to do to use me how you
> would. Anything, only let me be your completely surrendered servant."
>
> Since then, I have had a wonderful power in prayer that I did not have
> before. I can cry out to the Lord, and I know He hears me. I know it.

Hold on to what you've got.  It's hard to get it back if you let it go. 
Stay in that strange, wonderful place of blessing.  The adversary does not
want you there.  Stay, hold on.  Take it from one with memories.  Maybe
Uzziah, as he dwelt in a several house, remembered the days when he could
go in and out of Israel and when his fellowship with the Lord was sweet.

The real marvel in my life is that our school remains untouched--though
the Lord showed me on how thin a string it really stands.  He can break it
at any time, but has chosen not to--

Ezekiel 47:12   And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and
on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose LEAF SHALL NOT FADE,
NEITHER SHALL THE FRUIT THEREOF BE CONSUMED: IT SHALL BRING FORTH NEW
FRUIT ACCORDING TO HIS MONTHS, ***BECAUSE THEIR WATERS THY ISSUED OUT OF
THE SANCTUARY:*** and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf
thereof for medicine.

> I'm still in the race. By the Lord's grace, I'm going faster, because
> the load on my back from the world is getting lighter and lighter.

Lift off is just ahead.

> I
> mess up sometimes, but the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our
> sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Hebrews 12:2 ...make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Those sins that so easily beset us are the ones to watch out for.  The
flesh, the devil, and the world are at hand to capitalize on any weakness.
 David loved the Lord with all of his heart, I believe that.  And in the
end there was only one matter that the Lord had against that good man. 
Hezekiah was a good man and righteous.  But when the ambassadors from
Babylon came, he showed off his treasures that God had given him for his
love and affection and zeal.

I am not a good man and the Lord has plenty to find ought in me for.  Be
good and do good, my young brother.  Grow in your goodness and love for
the Lord your God.

> In my journey through
> the Old Testament, I am in Isaiah now. I'm almost finished with the
> Old Testament! Then, starting back over at Genesis.

Weighty and important reading.

> I've cleared out space in the back yard to plant some vegetables. I
> bought the Heirloom tomato seeds you suggested during the school year,
> but I didn't have a place or means to get a place to plant them then.
> I'm going to ask mom if I can go to the plant store and buy some
> vegetables plants already growing there, because growing something is
> better than nothing.

I do that too sometimes.

> I've also been enjoying organic rolled oats!

Great!

> Last night, I was reading the index page to BiblicalScholarship.net
> (each time I read it, it is more and more joyous to me), and I saw the
> book Nutrition & Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston Price and began
> to read about tooth decay. I didn't know that your body has the
> ability, with the right nutrients, to rebuild teeth!

I've also heard the testimony of a medical doctor who was in an accident. 
They kept taking bone from the same rib to graff (Bible spelling)
somewhere else.  He asked his physician, won't the bone get used up?  The
doctor said that if the membrane surrounding the rib is kept in tact, IT
GROWS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!  The man said that he was a doctor and did not know
that.  There are principles to be found.  Teeth, bone.  Comfrey, which I
have in the yard is known as "knitbone tea" because of its ability to knit
broken bones when taken as a tea.  I make a tea out of it to give to my
cauliflower plants because they like calcium.  I think that it is also
good for protein.  Take a little piece and it will sprout up into another
plant.  I've been focusing on plants that are tough.  The "Common Reed" is
considered a pest plant--it takes over--but you can eat it!  Nobody needs
to be hungry.  Instead of killing it, harvest it.  I picked one from the
side of the road and buried it in a "rain garden" I dug out near my sump
pump drainage area.


The chapter
> talked especially about butter from cows eating grain and healthy
> amounts of food, how it is far superior to most commercial butter from
> cows raised in stalls from grass brought in. Isaiah 7:15 says,
>
> "Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil,
> and choose the good."
>
> A simple meal with wholesome, grown food sounds wonderful. But in many
> ways, I don't know even where to start. For instance, with butter and
> milk, I know they are good because the Bible says so.

THAT IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW--THE BIBLE SAYS SO.  I gave Hannah that plat
of ground that is now my garden simply because I read that Jacob gave
Joseph a plat of land.  The fantastic thing about Biblical scholarship is
that you take whatever little piece that you get from the scriptures and
do it just because it is in the scriptures--THEN WHOLE WORLDS OPEN.  I
bought some raw honey from the organic food store.  It is smooth, rich,
creamy, and sweet.  Locust and WILD HONEY.  Wild honey, as I recall, has
protein and other good things in it from the pollen that is also collected
in the hive.  John the Baptist lived off of it with locusts.

> But where do I
> get real, healthful butter and milk?

Some organic stores sell raw milk.  You'd have to call around to find such
a place.  I have a video about raw vs. homogenized milk.  I plan to make
my own butter and cheese.  There is a plant called sorrel that will curdle
your milk.  I want to make farmer's cheese.  It's soft, but a start.

> I stopped drinking cow's milk a
> few years ago when I found out what people do to cows to get them to
> produce more milk. But now I'm wondering if drinking organic cows milk
> and making butter from it is good to eat. What do you think?

You can't make butter from the regular organic milk you buy even in the
health food store because--

IT'S HOMOGENIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few years ago, we had an end-of-the-school-year event and I had the
children trying to make butter from milk.  They shook and shook the bags
but it never came out.  I don't know how I found out, but I
did--homogenized milk has been blasted so that it does not separate.  I
can remember having to shake the milk when I was a child because it
separated.  Are we that lazy that we can't even shake milk?  This is
crazy.

You must get milk that is not homogenized in order to make your butter. 
Maybe you can use cream, but I haven't tried it yet so I can't say for
sure.

> Do you
> and your daughter eat organic butter, milk, and other dairy products?

Yes.

> ...always keep me in your prayers.

When I do what is right, you stay on my mind--my concern and my love is
intense at those times.  My prayers are fervent and frequent.  I once
wrote a meditation on the horrible situation that I deal with night and
day.  I let the trials of life and the state of the world keep me upset
and sighing day and night.  I use them as an excuse to seek relief and
pleasure through the flesh.  I don't eat before 4 pm, but I still eat too
much.

Thank you for praying for me and Hannah.   I am still blessed and what man
knows how your prayers have undergirded us?  God will bless you for it and
he will keep on blessing you and you will keep on loving it.  Believe you
will succeed, hold on to what you have and strenously deny anything that
would dampen your love.

> P.S. You asked how I learned perfect pitch...When I
> decided to try to develop perfect pitch, I went to middle C and hummed
> it. Then, when I was away from a piano, I would sing a song in my head
> that started off with middle C.  I would hold the note in my head, and
> go to a piano to see if the note I was humming was actually middle C.
> Sometimes it would be, sometimes the note I was humming would be too
> high.

I did something similar to this but started with A and created a song.

> Over time, I intuitively learned to determine which note sounded
> right. It just was practice. My vocal range also helped-- I knew that
> the i could sing one octave below middle c, but other notes I could
> not reach once octave below.  Now I can produce middle C without
> hearing anything. Once I have middle C, I can climb or descend the
> notes to get a different note.

It sounds like you have what is called relative pitch.  One of Hannah's
teachers had it.  She hears one note and then can go from there.  After
reading your email, I looked it up and in so doing, came across additional
information on perfect pitch.  I added the following to the
BiblicalScholarship.net index under Music--

"Perfect/absolute vs. relative pitch--perfect pitch found more [often] in
those who speak tonal languages; most who have perfect pitch get it early.
Study revealed that attempts to "teach" perfect pitch must [usually] occur
before 5--Hannah started piano at 37 months. Hannah's perfect pitch
identified by accident (I think that this happens often with children 
who have perfect pitch). I downloaded an ear training software program and
kept getting the notes wrong as I tried to show Hannah how to use it. When it
was her turn, she kept getting the notes right so I looked it up on the internet
and found out it was called perfect pitch. She eventually had a teacher who also had it.
This teacher said that when she was three, one day she told her mother, "that
piano is out of tune" and that is how her gift was identified. Hannah once told
me that the dining room clock chimed in C. I've heard of a boy who said a person (or a
pig?) "Sneezed in G." Many muscians learn and possess relative pitch.
Hannah a teacher with relative pitch. She only needed one note and
then she could identify all other notes. This is commonly learned. I may be
related to solfedge. [Theory: Just as any American can identify the sound
of short "a" independent of all other sounds, it is possible more people
(every person?) can identify the sounds of the keyboard without a relative
note--but this ability must come early. Set an
atmosphere to foster it rather than teach it. Understand ideal conditions
and set them. Have an instrument like a Snellen chart to "test" for
perfect pitch at a strategic time. If not possessed by a certain point,
begin teaching relative pitch early in musical education.]"

On another aural note, I've read that if a child is taught a foreign
language before 5, they will speak without an accent.  I've found this to
be true with Hannah.

I also added information on "Rebuilding Your Vision".  Exercises that will
strengthen the eyes taking away the need for glasses.  At 40, my vision
began to deteriorate--I later learned that I have presbyopia.  It happens
to most people with age, usually beginning around 40.  The lense stiffens
and won't contract.  I began doing exercises and saw almost immediate
improvement.  Hannah is also doing the exercises as we wait for the program
to arrive.

Take a trip around the world with View-Master.  Select your
destination--all places are not equally important--and get your reel.  Our
basement is being transformed into what they used to call a "Wonder Room".

Those that now own View-Master have announced that they will not be
producing scenes anymore.  They will only focus on tv characters and
Disney.  People don't have an interest in real things for their children. 
My grief was real and sustained over this.  For now, I add choice pieces
to our collection.  They even have a vintage reel of Babylon/Mesopotamia
and Persia/Iran.  Add ancient Greece, Rome, and the Vatican and you have
Nebuchadnezzar's image.  We ordered one of Israel, and others...

Goodbye for now,

Mephibosheth