THE HOUSE DOCTOR PART FOUR PREPARING FOR A LIVELY SUMMER

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

I did so LOVE the spring look that had evolved at our home by the closing of spring this year, and even felt a little sad and challenged about packing it all up.  I had become used to it and it made me happy every time I walked through.

It felt like Spring had reached a point of perfection; but nothing gold can stay forever, and I’m sure by Fall, Summer will have reached a point of perfection too…..so here goes, on with the transition!

Out with the red, white and blue - what a contrast!  Quite a change!

Both looks could be quite cheerful and comfortable, but I was going for more of summer and less of spring!  This:

Became this:

And several other changes began to take place:

I usually wait until after Derby Day and Mother’s Day to begin to transition our house from the lovely, more formal, fresh and bright spring greens and soft and pretty pastels into the more casual and comfortable deeper, darker greens of summer and deep reds of Pentecost.  I chose to start a little early this year.  

Now with the fast approaching days of summer we go from elegant, spacious and slightly formal to cottage-cozy, laid back and comfortable casual.  I always want a more relaxed, laid back feeling in the house which will hopefully match our life styles during the summer months.

 

It is a season that easily blends it’s qualities.  These same colors used for Pentecost work well when we arrive at the time for the patriotic reds, whites and blues of Memorial Day.   The patriotic things feel so festive, yet un-formal.  They continue the Pentecost message with the way they speak of freedom and growth of a Godly nation.  

They also lend themselves with the blends of more shades of the blues and some mixed beiges to the beach feeling I like to mix into it all.  

These beach decorations and colors then go so well with more red, white and blue when we once again show our patriotism on Independence Day.

When you set your home with this atmosphere, you get the feeling of a constant on-going picnic.  It is the time of the year to concentrate much more on the yard and the outside living areas of the home.  We stay beach-worthy inside and outside right through the end of August when things will once again take another transition and total change of colors in honor of fall in September. 

This year I’m starting early, right BEFORE Mother’s Day.  I’m going to let May, June, July and August just blend with slight changes.  I have pulled out the basics and I’m setting my goals for some new improvements and fresh ideas this summer. I have a list of the things I would like to aim to accomplish in my home before the end of August.  I'll share a few of them with you here.  Pray that I get at least HALF of them done!

I want to plant a thriving spice garden in my kitchen window.  When this gets done I'll use these spices to make fresh new summer recipes.

I need to make the entrance to the house fit the season that we are going through.

I would love to re-purpose several pieces of old un-useful-for-the-moment furniture.  I want to paint some smaller pieces with a patriotic flair (only to be used in the appropriate seasons.)

I am hoping to be able to revive some of my outdoor areas – they need a lot of tender loving care this summer.   They have been long neglected while we worked on some inside remodeling.   Places like the back yard deck, the grilling area at the downstairs back of the house and the screened porch just off our master bedroom.

It would be fun to incorporate more plants, those of the “eating” kind and those of the “just pretty” kind into planters and containers all over the yard and decks of the house.

I am STILL cleaning out the storage building and garage - an on-going project that will continue through the summer.  The garage may have more priority - since it is cooler in the summer months.

I’ve always dreamed of having a little secret garden to the back of my house that wraps all the way around one side of my house.  I want to lay out the master plan for that this summer and plant a few of the basics and create a few beginning gardening projects in that direction.  This will be a whimsical garden, one with little spots of imaginative creations and restful places of peaceful meditation, with pretty plantings that add large splashes of color here and there, maybe even with a walking trail, be it ever so small and humble.  I will use some of my seasonal re-purposed furniture that I will not need to use any more to make outdoor sitting spaces for this area.

 

I want to establish our first annual Family Pentecost BBQ Picnic to be held in our own back yard and I will work on little things that aim for making this more festive and fun for all.  This year it will only be immediate family, but this may evolve over the years into a casual reunion with other extended family and friends.  I’ve noticed a lot of the younger cousins don’t really seem to know each other very well.  We need to initiate an opportunity there…..Planning the fun events that you want to take part in your home is what the constant remodeling and redecorating is all about, right?  It is all about the people; not the things.  I want the people to know each other better!  The things and all the effort you are extending toward the care of your home are for the people you love.  Let them enjoy as often as you can.  There are a million little ways to do this.  My Pentecost Family Picnic is just one example.  What would you like to be sharing with your family this summer? Make some special memories!

Last but not least, is my forever dream-plan of putting an entertainment center with sliding barn-style doors at the end of our living room.  It would be a miracle to get this done by fall, but I can always hope.  I’ve seen just exactly what I want (well, I would tweek it a bit and make it fit my purposes) in a local store display.  Remember my thoughts are to have the barn doors slide on and off and be the display for my different large pieces of art to be changed with each season?  I am going to make it a priority to take pictures of the “almost perfect” one I saw so that my husband and my son-in-laws can help me build it at the end of our living room.  If we do it ourselves, we can do this for a small amount of pocket change.  The one I saw in the store though amounted to several thousands of dollars.  Of course, I'm opting for saving the money and having a new family project to share!   I would change the store's original design a bit to suit my own purposes, change the door to one large one instead of two smaller ones, and change the colors used for painting the wood.  This is on my “if possible” list.  Maybe I will just start accumulating the materials – we will see how this one goes.

So what is my budget for all of this?  I don’t have one.  I really don’t have a penny to spend on home improvements this summer, so everything you see from me will be very thrifty and economical.  Just more of an excuse to use the old imagination, right?  Keep reading the blog each week to see all that can be accomplished with sheer will power and a little elbow grease!

Sounds like we all are going to have a very busy summer!  I’ll share my pics and tell you all about it as we go along, hopefully it will spark some ideas for your home too.  Have you made your own list yet?  What things would you like to work toward this summer?  Life is a process and if you don’t think it through and make a list, well you may not ever get started.  If you have anything you would love to share with others about your summer décor and home improvement ideas, please let me know.  I would be happy to feature your home on this blog in “The House Doctor” section too.  I'm always looking for willing participants not too embarrassed to put their ideas out there for everyone to share.  The more we share our ideas the richer our lives will be.

 Just don’t forget to stop and enjoy your summer progress along the way.  Take long times to rest and bask in your progress and also remember to share the beautiful results of your ideas with all of your family, friends and neighbors.  A “house” is an investment.  A “home” is a lifestyle!

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 68 HAGAR BECOMES KETURAH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

So, the story hiding within the story is that Abraham married Keturah shortly after Isaac married Rebekah. 

 There is much fascination around the thoughts as to who Keturah really was.  It seems that Abraham was 140 when he married her; that would mean that they were husband and wife for thirty-five years, since Abraham died at a ripe old age of 175.  

We see Keturah mentioned in the scriptures of the Torah as the one Abraham married after Isaac’s wedding, as if she were a whole new person in the story, but many believe she had a past history with Abraham.  Some think she was actually Hagar with a new name. It seems that the Midrash also leans toward the theory that Hagar was Keturah, and her name was changed due to the fine qualities that she had developed over a lifetime of living on her own.
 

One has to stop here to remember that God changed the names of Abraham and Sarah, and it seems highly possible that this would also have been the case with Hagar.  Yet, none of this is explained exactly, so all we can do based on the solid scriptures is speculate.  It is almost as if things were deliberately vague regarding Keturah.  
 

In the questions around Keturah there is also that nagging question of whether or not Abraham actually married and/or divorced Hagar in the first place, or if she was simply a concubine and he just sent her away.

The Midrash teaches that Abraham DID divorce Hagar when he sent her away (which would indicate that he was actually legally married to her also.) It states that as she sat by the well and cried out to God that she demanded for God to look down on her shame and bring her justice.  This same story teaches that God heard her prayer and much later granted her this justice by speaking to Abraham after Sarah’s death and commanding him to take back his divorced wife, Hagar.
 

It is also hinted in the Torah scriptures and repeated in the Midrash that Isaac too actually initiated this action of his father’s remarriage.  The story notes that Isaac, having just married Rebekah, said to himself “I have taken a wife, while my father is without a spouse.  What did he decide to do about this?  He went and brought Keturah to Abraham.  The one who had inadvertently caused them to be separated in the first place, now brought them together again.  

This traditional teaching is based on Genesis 24:62 that reads “Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Be’er-la-hai-ro’i”.  So; many think that it is highly possible that was when Isaac brought Hagar back to live with Abraham again, probably hoping she would keep him company and he would not be so lonely since Sarah had died.  We know that same area is where she had established a life when she left Abraham’s camp, and it was where she had been living for most of her days since her time with Abraham.  It was also where several of her experiences with God had taken place, and where her eyes had been opened, hence how the place had been given its name.  (Genesis 16:14)  A lot had happened to Hagar at this well.  Perhaps Hagar had learned even more by living beside this well than the scriptures tell us.  There seems to be a drastic change between the first woman we knew as Hagar and the woman we meet later named Keturah.  God had done a work in Hagar and this had changed her name.

Let’s ponder this and go a bit deeper with it.  When Abraham sent Hagar

and Ishmael away on the day of Isaac’s weaning, it is certainly very possible that he did give her a certificate of divorce.  Sarah had been very angry and wanted Abraham to be rid of this servant and her son forever.  She wanted it to be legal so there could be no question that Isaac was the only heir of Abraham.
 

Hagar was left alone in the wilderness to care for her son without anyone helping her for years and years.  Some think Abraham had mercy on her and sent her in the direction of the well, knowing that if she found water, she would be saved.  Still, she was lost and on her own without the identity of Abraham's name for years and years.  It is said that he sent help to her, but had promised Sarah that his foot would never step down from his camel on Ishmael’s property.  So when he visited with Ishmael, it was not inside Ishmael’s home.  It was by indirect contact or infrequent face to face encounters for many years.
 

Let’s even take these thoughts about Abraham and Hagar’s divorce a step further and ask another question:  Was this not a very similar situation to the time when God sent Israel away with a divorce and dispersed them into the world and they became lost without any sign of their true identity?
 

God had married Israel at Mt. Sinai on Pentecost when the cloud had settled over the mountain like a wedding canopy. God gave the people His covenant in writing on stone called The Ten Commandments.  Moses, acting in the place of the priest, had written out the marriage certificate, the Ketubah, containing all of the words, and all the people who had cleansed their clothes and consecrated themselves for two days, stood before God on the third day and agreed to this marriage covenant.   

The very first commandment was “thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”  No sooner were the words written down and read  aloud than the people were building and worshiping a golden calf.  They were committing spiritual adultery almost as soon as they took their wedding vows.  How did God chose to handle this?  Though His heart was broken, after many repeated episodes of the same thing, He gave these rebellious people a writ of divorce.  God cannot dwell with pagans.

We read about this in Jeremiah, Chapter 3.  The prophet speaks in parable and allegory to describe all of this.  He speaks of how Israel had been untrue to God by worshiping other gods.  The two parties had created a covenant together of the most serious kind.  It was an extension of the original covenant God had given to Abraham.  
   

A marriage contract is always based on compete faithfulness of both the bride and the groom.  This was a blood covenant.   Moses had built an altar of twelve stones to represent each of the twelve tribes.  He had read the contract aloud and sprinkled the people with half the blood of the sacrifices and poured the other half of the blood on the altar. 

In those days when a blood covenant was made it meant that if one party broke the covenant it was punishable by death (by the shedding of a party of the covenant’s own blood.)  Yet, serious as it was, in no time at all the people had broken the covenant.
   

The words “thou shalt have no other gods before me” were the same as a groom saying to his bride, “You will have no other husband but Me.”  When the people sinned by worshiping the idol of the golden calf, they committed spiritual adultery.  They were untrue to God.  They lost their purity before Him.  This broke the covenant with God and ended the marriage.  At that point, the people were doomed to die for their sin of adultery and rebelliousness.

How odd to think that the God of Heaven had married a harlot, but that was the case with Israel!
 

We could stay within the bounds of our present story and look at Abraham and Hagar and say “How odd that Abraham would have married an Egyptian slave girl who would eventually rebel against his household!  He divorced her and sent her away when she was rebellious against his house.  Hagar and Ishmael had treated Sarah and Isaac grievously.  Her own rebellion had caused her divorce.
 

The story of Hagar and Abraham continues to reflect the story of God and Israel.  It is not the story of Isaac.  Isaac represents the people who did not rebel against God in spiritual adultery.  It is about another son, the son of Hagar who was very different from the son of Sarah.  Ishmael was wild and rebellious.  Ishmael paid no attention to the laws and rules of Abraham’s household even though when he was but a young boy God had given him mercy and saved him beside a wellspring of water.  Ishmael remained rebellious, but it seems that Hagar had begun to change.

Hagar wandered in the circumstances that Abraham had decided for her until she came to rest by a well where God spoke to her and satisfied her thirst as well as the thirst of her son.  This nourishment from the water of the well and the words from heaven to her here in this place made her realize her worth as a child of God.  Miracles can do that for all of us.  Sometimes things just happen that we know were impossible without God’s total intervention, and those things tend to strengthen our belief and help us to hold on until we are spiritually stronger and able to overcome our circumstances.

  

There at the well provided by God, Hagar found her purpose and destiny.  She became the woman that God had intended for her to be all along.  Her circumstances helped her to understand need and suffering.  This developed a trait of compassion and love for others that had not come naturally to her before.  Now that she had known thirst, she shared the precious water from the well with all those passing by, and they maintained life from it and were grateful.  They paid her good wages for this water and Hagar began to support herself and her son from the bounty of the one good thing that God had given them of their own.
 

We all have one thing in our lives that we know is our greatest blessing from

God.  Usually when we become grateful for that one thing and turn it completely over to God, He multiplies that one thing into a way for us to become survivors and over-comers in a hard, cold and uncaring world.  For people of God living in the modern world today, a way to over-come tribulation and survive is critical.  It is a trait we must learn from Hagar.  We must find out and understand how she came to be Keturah.  Keturah was a woman who was prepared to become a bride.
 

God's love gives our hearts the capacity to grow and reach out to those who have even more needs than we do.  In this unselfish act, we begin to find our blessings and we cultivate love.  That is exactly what had happened to Hagar as she waited by the well and tended to her son.  That is the very thing that turned her into Keturah.  She developed compassion and love for all of mankind.  She forgave Sarah and Abraham for putting her into circumstances beyond her control.  She did not question God's destiny for her life any longer, and she began to fulfill the true destiny that God had designed especially for her to be.
 

A whole new woman appeared; one much different than the one that had left the home of Abraham so many years ago.  The change from Hagar to Keturah prepared her to become acceptable as Abraham’s wife again.
 

So it seems that after the death of Sarah Abraham found Hagar again, after many years of not knowing her, and he saw how beautiful she had become, both inside and out.  It was said by the people in the land that her deeds were as pleasant as incense, and that is part of the meaning of her new name.  Where she once had been bitter and harsh Abraham now saw her kind ways.  He saw that she had not neglected her only son, but had raised him to be strong.  He was amazed at the business woman that she had grown to be, smartly buying and trading with the merchants that came and went through the land, always selling them the right to use the water in her well; but always keeping the well for her livelihood.  Some think that she also sold spices to the merchants that she had grown and cultivated in her garden, but the well was her main source of income.  Even her garden was watered by it. 

Let’s not forget – it was Abraham’s well.  He never took it from her, but let her use it freely and this provided a living for her while she was away from him. (Does this remind you of  how God sent The Holy Spirit to His people when Jesus had to go back to Heaven?)  

Hagar/Keturah had become quite wealthy and prosperous, and she had kept herself moral and pure.  She had never even looked in the direction of another man after her relationship with Abraham.  She had very strong strong morals and very high standards.  She had made it on her own, with God’s help.  She had relied on no other man to solve her problems and had risen above her harsh circumstances with dignity and grace.  Abraham recognized this change of character and admired the very valuable woman that she had become.  He saw so many new qualities that had come to take root in her life since the days of the Egyptian slave girl from so long ago.  This totally different woman had a new name.  Hagar was gone.  Now they called her Keturah.  So Abraham remarried Keturah and they had six sons.

  

There is another story about a prophet named Hosea that had an experience with a rebellious wife.  Like Abraham’s marriage to Keturah, his marriage was also a picture of God’s marriage to Israel, only an even better comparison.  

Hosea and Gomer (his wayward wife) had three children.  Gomer went out and committed adultery and eventually she found herself standing in the slave market shamefully waiting to be sold as a slave.  God instructed Hosea to go find her and redeem her.  Hosea did this and redeemed her for fifteen shekels of silver and one-half an omer of barley.
  

In a similar fashion, God instructed Yeshua to go find the lost sheep of Israel and to redeem them.  He did this.  He bought them back from the slave market of sin for thirty shekels of silver and his own flesh and blood.

When we read of the death of Abraham, who died at 175 years old, we see a picture of Isaac and Ishmael burying their father together.  How very strange to know that the two sons who were kept apart during the life of Abraham came together in the death of Abraham.  We had a hint of this reconciliation when Isaac brought Keturah back to Abraham after Sarah died.  Maybe this reconciliation of the two sons came even before Abraham died, perhaps some time after the Akadah?  We do not know exactly when, but now we see two very different men coming together in peace in order to bury their father.

 Some believe that in his old age Abraham had worked very hard to reconcile the two grown men to one another as brothers.  Perhaps as he grew older and older Abraham did not want to die with the thought that the two that he loved most on earth were enemies, and this situation had been partially of his own making; because he had divorced Hagar and separated them.
  

When Isaac and Ishmael come together in grief over losing their father, we are reminded of the split between the tribes of Israel that happened much later in history, where the ten tribes were separated from the two tribes and both groups, once separated. wound up being exiled to different places, with ten tribes totally losing their identity within the family of Israel and only two tribes eventually returning from exile to Jerusalem.
 

Many today believe that one day these two parts of the nation of Israel will rediscover their identity as one family and re-unite in the power of The Holy Spirit under a shared belief that Yeshua is Messiah and the true Son of God.  A day may come where they will honor their Father and become One again. 

We know that it is promised that Yeshua,  like the shadow we see of Isaac in our story, will bring His family together once more; and Israel will again become one with God.  It is a day we all hope and pray for, a day when we will all find the peace of God that has been so elusive for so long.  
  

Will that time be like the time at the end of Abraham's life?  Will it too be a long slow process with many twists and turns?  Will it take that long for two brothers of one Father to become friends again and agree on the truth of their family history?

But wait….God had divorced Israel, at least the scriptures indicate that He divorced all but the tribe of Judah.  How could these two divided pieces of one nation ever reunite again?  It would break God’s own law. 

Abraham was able to remarry Keturah (Hagar who had changed), but she had remained faithful and had not gone after other men.  We know that the reason the lost sheep were divorced from God in the first place was that they were committing spiritual adultery, or they were worshiping idols and using pagan practices in their lives.  God could not endure this, hence the writ of divorce.  

It is said in God’s own law (Deuteronomy 24: 1-4), in the Ketubah that was given at Sinai, the document that contained the ten commandments for all to follow on the wedding day; that a man could not remarry a woman he had divorced if she had been wed to another, even if that person died.  

The only way for God to be able to legally remarry the lost sheep of Israel would be for Him to die, thus ending that part of the covenant.  (A covenant that was broken only ended with the death of one party of the covenant.)   If God died and was resurrected to new life it would then be possible for Him to remarry those of Israel that He had previously divorced.  That is exactly what happened.
 

Wonder of all wonders, there was a way and it was legal!  Romans 7:2-3, written in the words of Paul explains it:

“For a woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives, but if her husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband.”

If the first husband dies, the woman would be free to marry another man, even if she had been married to someone else in the meantime (spiritual adultery.)  We know the first husband of Israel was God, and we know He gave most of Israel a writ of divorce.  We know a portion of Israel has been lost and wandering around in the wilderness of the world for years and years (like Hagar) not even realizing their true identity any more.  We also know the only way that God could legally remarry these “lost sheep” was to die first and then be resurrected to new life.
 

That is just what happened!  This was exactly what took place when God came as Jesus Christ and gave His life on a cross for the redemption of sins.  When that happened the lost ten tribes were legally free to remarry if they chose to do so.  

It was Jesus who died, but Yeshua and God are One, are they not?  God paid for His Bride with His life.  He separated a part of himself to come to earth to live in the flesh so that He might live and die for His Bride, Israel to be made whole again.  

Once Israel is made whole, the Gentiles may also be saved by the atonement of this same precious blood of Christ.  In this act the Son reconciled the Father back to his original wife, and it was completely legal and in keeping with the Law.   The first marriage, the one to Sarah was still in tact, but she had died making it legal for God to marry again.  The second marriage to Hagar had received Sarah's blessing, but it had not been God's will.  It was ended with the death of God and made new through the Resurrection.  Jesus said "I make all things new."  It is still the same Ketubah, or marriage contract with a new and deeper covenant and commitment and now, this time,  the bride has a choice.  She is free, no longer a slave.  She can remarry if she chooses to do so. 

Now the decision is in the former wife’s court.  Will she come back to be reconciled with her husband?  God allows for free will.  Will she work with her first and true love to bring ALL under the cloud of covering, the wedding canopy of God?  Will the Bride chose the Groom and start to prepare herself  for the next wedding?  Two thousand years have ticked off from the clock in order for us to come to the time of this decision.  Is the bride becoming prepared?  Is she ready?  In the first wedding the bride spent two days getting ready, washing her clothes and consecrating herself to meet God.  On the third day the wedding took place.  We are approaching the third day of humanity on this earth after the death of Christ on the cross.  Is the bride ready?  Yeshua is going to return!

Yes, it is true that Yeshua came to bring ALL men to God, but He came FIRST

to the lost sheep of Israel.  Until God’s household was in order again the whole family could not be complete and legal.  Because Israel had sinned and caused a divorce to happen Yeshua now had to die to make this remarriage possible.  He has now been resurrected into new life, and He is waiting on his Bride to be ready.

Do you see how much of this story is like the story of Abraham and Hagar/Keturah?  They had already been married once before and were divorced.  Hagar was sent away never to return. Things looked pretty hopeless.  Hagar had gone back to Egypt and back to her old pagan ways for a while, but these things had died in her heart because she had seen the truth right there beside the well and she knew of God.  She remembered how she had lived  in God's ways with Abraham’s house under the covenant blessings, and she once again decided on her own accord to return to the ways of God in her life; only this time she kept God’s laws from within her heart instead of just because that was the proper thing for a servant to do in Abraham’s house.  She was free to make a choice and she made the RIGHT choice.  This is what turned her into Keturah!  This is what made her ready to be reunited with her husband.   

It was like God had been preparing her heart to be re-united with her former husband all along.  His son initiated this and encouraged their reconciliation.  Once the father was again happily married the son could go on with his life and live out the purposes that God had planned for him.
    

This is just a small portion of all the essence of what is contained in the few small paragraphs of scripture that we know of Abraham’s remarriage to Keturah.  Perhaps we will hear of them again later as we now go back and continue to study the love story of Rebekah and Isaac.  Whether we do or not, just know that Abraham died a happy man having lived a fulfilling life before God.  

We hear that at the end of his life Abraham came with the fullness of his days and was gathered to his people.  How many times do you hear of such a happy ending?   And the best part of all is that Abraham's ending, just like any child of God, was only his new beginning in eternity.  

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 67 - A FAMILY IN TRANSITION AND TRANSFORMATION

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

So, like all of the fairy tales we know and love; Isaac and Rebekah married and lived happily ever after, right?   Funny how we humans tend to view the beginnings of all marriages that way!

I hope that isn’t what you are thinking, because if you are, you are sadly mistaken.  Like every true life story, Isaac and Rebekah had their share of ups and downs all through their marriage.

Rebekah did not come directly into that magical life that Abraham had once lived with Sarah, even though, when you think about it – they had THEIR ups and down too.  The good times and the blessed days that we hear of were things that everyone had to work hard to accomplish.  They were now a family and a team and it all had to be done together.  At any rate, Sarah was completely absent from the family picture by this time; so Rebekah experienced a world with no wiser older woman to influence her and guide her.  It must have been very hard for her in the beginning.  She was basically on her own, living in the tent with Isaac.  She had only her oldest servant for help and friendship.  She was very young and this must have been quite an adjustment.  She had probably lived in a house in the past, and now she took on the life of a sojourner, always living in a tent with no walls to hide behind and no permanent doors to close and lock the world out.  The woman who chose to wear the veil was in a time of transition, and so was her husband.

   

There was yet another strange and interesting transition taking place in the family during the time period that Isaac and Rebekah were forming and establishing their marriage.  They all went through another wedding as Abraham took another wife in his old age.  This new wife, named Keturah, was from a different culture and she and Abraham lived miles away from Rebekah and Isaac, so even this was of no comfort to Rebekah in the new place.  Abraham had given the established area of the home site in Hebron to Isaac and then basically left them alone to begin their marriage. 

Abraham’s new wife was named Keturah.  They had six sons of their own.  Of the six named children of Abraham and Keturah, only Midian’s future has an impact on the rest of the story of Abraham’s descendants.  It might be possible, but is fuzzy and unclear, that Sheba, Dedan, and the Ashurites could have also been notable descendants that played indirectly into the family story.  It is suggested by some that these people might be the founders of the line of descendants that belonged to the famous “Queen of Sheba” who later tests Solomon’s wisdom.  It is all very unclear though, whether these are truly from the descendants of Abraham and Keturah, or just others with similar sounding names. 

But why is it that all of this is so obscure? Why are people as important as Abraham’s children not more involved in the story of the history of the children of God?  The answer is pretty simple.  Because Abraham wanted it that way.

Abraham, being very careful with everything involving Isaac, followed a custom of many other cultures when he decided to remarry.  He held the belief of those who thought it was best if a man’s wife died, that he should not remarry until his children were grown and married themselves.  He patiently waited until he saw Isaac happily married to Rebekah before considering taking another wife.

There are a lot of old stories that circulate around the fact of Abraham marrying again.  There is no way to confirm them, but many of them make sense in relation to the scriptures that we do know.

We have already mentioned that prior to Isaac's marriage Abraham had given Isaac all of his greatest possessions, and the bulk of his great wealth.  Isaac was clearly distinguished as Abraham’s most honored heir.  Every precaution was taken to protect this.

We know that Abraham tended to Ishmael's support until he was grown, giving him gifts while he was still living, and Abraham also looked after his sons with Keturah in the same way.  When they grew up Abraham always sent them away toward the East and was careful to keep these descendants separate and far from where Isaac was living.  Some commentators state that Abraham in his wisdom sent these sons out to seek and establish their own independence, thinking that living on their own and making their way through the world without his help would change them, make them stronger men and possibly even bring them closer to God.  From the records of history we can discern that these sons were pagan to the core.  This must have greatly disappointed Abraham, and some stories go so far as to say that Abraham gave the grown sons of Keturah a formal, legal document that was comparable to a writ of divorce.  This was to keep them legally distinguished from the inheritance of Isaac.  Isaac was always to be the legal child of blessing, both in the physical and the spiritual inheritance.  To keep this established and firm Keturah's sons, like Ishmael, were only given gifts from Abraham while he was still alive, and when he died they were to receive nothing else.  This custom was as if to say "here are my gifts for you; I give them to you now while I am alive, and it finishes my business with you."  

Thus it was clearly established that none of the sons of Keturah and Abraham were to inherit past their lifetime.  Isaac was the sole owner of the eternal blessings from Abraham's covenant with God.

As time allows we will talk more about this fascinating marriage of Abraham to Keturah.  It is often forgotten and laid aside because it is mentioned in the middle of the story of Isaac and Rebekah.  To know both love stories is important.  It helps us to understand the plan that God had for His people, from the very beginning of Abraham's story all the way through to the descendants of today, which are as many as the sand of the sea.

 

PIECES OF THE PUZZLE - A SEASON WITH A SIGN FOR AMERICA

(Written By Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Note:  Passover is behind us now.  Both of the much talked about blood moons of Passover have already happened.  There is one more blood moon in this famous and well published tetrad, and it occurs next on The Feast of Tabernacles in October.  So many have been using God's signs to create fear and anxiety over the land.  I only see the signs in the sky as a communication from heaven saying "I am watching and this is part of the warning I will give you.  Seek MY wisdom and live MY way.'  I do not claim to be a prophet.  Below is an expanded version of this thought pattern, giving my own personal thoughts on Passover and  the blood moons that we have already been through as well as the one that is left.  I will probably write an article related to The Feast of Tabernacles when the last blood moon draws nearer.  I am reminded of those wise men who saw the star just before the first coming of Jesus.  Everything that happens in the sky is just a reminder that Yeshua is coming again.  Are you ready?  

America, this is a time and a season for you!  

Look up - the skies will tell you a story!

We have just passed through the season of Passover.  Do you think it strange that I say that Passover this year and last year was a time for America, the land so full of protestant, non-Jewish Christians?  It might sound strange to you because the culture we live in has hidden the truth very well; but the average person in America should  actually find it very easy to identify with God's people from the days of Pharaoh.

That first great Passover was celebrated in Egypt, and the Israelites were living as hopeless slaves.  God said to them:  “I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn.“   God said:  “The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”  The blood on the doorpost was a sign over a nation.  It was a sign that saved the Israelites and led them out from their misery and slavery.

 

This Passover, so many many years later, most of the households that make up America were also held under some type or form of bondage.  It may not be apparent immediately that in most families today a person has to work so hard to survive and pay his way that he feels like it is a type of slavery.  There is no other life outside of work for many here in America today.  We have very high standards, and we pay for them.  There are hardly any mothers or children that can afford the luxury of staying home instead of working or going to day care while their Mother works.  There are hardly any men who can keep up with the high standards of our culture without working two and sometimes three jobs.  There is no relief from the tax burden of  a government that no longer cares about the average, every day person.  We no longer work to live, but we live to work.  This is the opposite of how God intended for things to be.  Most Americans, though they look very blessed are deeply in debt and only a few days short of the debtor's prisons that seem to be regaining popularity with our so-called leaders.  The Sabbaths have been pushed aside to glorify the mighty dollar that is demanded every way we turn.  If you don't believe this, just do an interesting eye-0pening experiment.  Jot down how much money you spend from sun rise to sunset today.  You might be shocked at what it cost to merely "survive" here in the land of the free that isn't so very free any more.  It is so bad that retail establishments feel they have to be open 24/7 in order to turn a profit.  Many people would rather take their Sabbaths, but they feel forced and pressured and trapped into working that extra day to survive.  

The stress of all of this has created some very common problems that should be very solvable, but people no longer seem to know the answers.  They have become hopeless and only cover up with whatever addiction they find works for them to give some type of distraction that only brings temporary relief.  It may be that a person has become a drug addict or an alcoholic or maybe they find themselves in bondage to some other type of common addictions so prevalent in this land.  It may be immorality that is holding some captive - a dark place that they cannot escape or leave.  They need help from outside themselves.  That box in our living room that we listen to every night for hours on end doesn't have the right answers!

It may be that others find themselves in an unending struggle through the circumstances of poverty, always striving to leave the state but never quite making it from one struggle to the next.  They feel as if they have been caught in a trap, every way they turn, they lose.  There is always something else to overcome.  

There never seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for a nation growing more hopeless and helpless each day with the hours of the clock that keep ticking down.  

Maybe a person is held in bondage by some fatal disease, lying in a hospital bed without proper treatment because they could not afford to go into debt for proper medical care, or even in a place where there is the proper care but no one seems to care if they get it or if they lay dying; they are just holding on to what is left of their last few breaths of life.   They lay there lonely and forgotten by the world full of people intent on their own pleasures.  

These are only a few of the many examples I could give.  Many in America are not free at all.  Freedom is only an illusion that we cannot maintain for any amount of time.  We are a lot like those who lived in the hopeless community that slaved for Pharaoh in Egypt to build expensive buildings and elaborate dwellings for the rich and prosperous of an elite group of people who did not care for them and would not help them.  They only existed to feed the needs of the greedy.

I have good news!  There is a Passover!   It happened back then, and it happens here in America every year.  Our future is never hopeless because it too contains a Passover.

The Egyptian term for Passover means “to spread the wings over something and protect it.”  Jesus once gave a picture of this speaking of Jerusalem.  He spoke of a mother hen gathering her chicks under her.  The Great God of Heaven who gave us Passover still stands guard over His people.  Do not be deceived into thinking this is only one tiny little nation.  God's people today are those who believe in Him and are committed to His Kingdom.  They live in all corners of the earth.  God watches over the houses all across every continent that have the blood of Christ sprinkled over the doors of the hearts and souls of the inhabitants inside. He knows where we live.  He found the slaves in Egypt and brought deliverance, and He will find us.  He knows where to find His people, even in times when they cannot find each other.  He found Noah in the days that the world was completely evil, and He gave a warning for 120 years before He acted to destroy the evil.   This same God has even put a  blood moon in the sky on the evening of  two consecutive Passovers for a sign like the rainbow that was given to Noah, as if to say, "I'm still here, I'm still watching, I'm still God - Don't be afraid."  The death angel could at any time be passing through the land, but even the ignorant people of God who haven’t studied enough to observe the Feast of Passover instructions in God's instruction book have received God’s mercy and protection because this year and last year there was a merciful blood moon hanging over the land.    

This amazing blood moon hung in the sky over our land as if to say, "I know you haven’t listened.  I know you have not heeded My words, I will not strive with you forever, but I have seen your bondage and I am merciful and I am forgiving, and right now I am still protecting you."  Like in the days of Noah I am sending out the message by signs in the sky in order to say you still have time to repent! 

I believe that God gave the blood moon to shine over America in answer to the cries of His people who have prayed long and earnestly about their frustrations with our leaders in the land.  Many frustrated godly people have cried out to God and asked for His intervention for our nation and the nation of Israel.  The sky messages are God saying, "I have listened and I have heard.  I will have mercy on you and protect you for a while longer."  

Numerous pastors have picked up on the message that a God in Heaven is sending a sign and signal with the blood moons, four of which will occur consecutively over four of the festival days that God long ago gave to the people of Israel to observe forever.  Two of these blood moons have already occurred on the very nights of two consecutive Passovers.  Everyone knows God is saying something with these moons and they are all trying to guess what it is.  Many are giving warnings and grave prophecies, but all anyone has to do is to go back and study the meaning of the days in which the moons occur.   I am no prophet, but even I can discern that.

Two of the blood moons occur on Passover.  Passover means that if you have the blood of the lamb over the door-post to your heart you will be safe during the tribulation.  God does nothing that he does not warn the faithful first.  He is saying to us – take comfort and do not be afraid!  I sent the blood moons to cover you in your ignorance, just as I sent my Son to die for you in your sins.  I love you and you can trust Me to protect you and take care of you as long as you are covered with the blood of Yeshua.  For now, until you look up and remember for the next two years – I am showing you mercy and waiting on you to turn back to the ways I have taught you from the days of old. How many will heed this?  How many will get it?

Look up America and observe the blood moons sent by God to remind you that He is still there.  

He is still watching.  

It still matters that you have that blood sacrifice applied to cover your sins.

The blood moons speak of His mercy, just as the blood on the doorposts spoke of His mercy back at the first Passover.  

Wake up America and turn your face back to God.  He has given sure and certain commandments.  Have you decided that He threw out several of them just because American did not want to accept them?  Not so.  They are still commandments and Yeshua has told us not a jot or tittle will ever change.  God has spoken, have we listened?  

His mercy is long and He has been very patient with us – turn around and give Him your hearts again.  He will bring you out from the bondage of the terrible leadership that you have been under.  He will take you to a place where He will feed you and guide you.  He will show you the promised land again; just look up and see His signs in the sky and KNOW that He is the God of Passover – forever.  Know that the promise of your redemption draweth neigh!  He will defend you in the times of troubles like a mother hen defending her chicks.  Has He not said this?  The giver of the blood moons will protect His own. 

People of God, now is the time to bring forth your faith.  Passover requires faith and total obedience.  Had the Israelites merely hidden behind the doorposts covered with the blood of the lamb without faith in the deliverance of God they would not have been redeemed.  Faith and obedience go hand in hand and both are necessary.  These two things will get our country back on track.  Faith and obedience to God will bring us back to the promised land that we remember as if it were a dream, but we must chose to obey God’s word – all of it.  We must put our faith to action. 

Just as the ancient people taught us how to walk through Passover, we too

have a part to play in the lives of the generations to come.  We will be the shadow for them just as our ancestors were the shadow for us.   Our actions now will be a shadow of the things to come for their future.  What we do now matters.  It is crucial.  It is important.  Let’s give them truth and life and hope.  Let’s teach them about Passover.  Let’s show them redemption in its truest form.  Let’s show them faith and obedience.  Let’s teach them the word of God (all of it) and how to follow it.  Let our lives be living sacrifices dedicated to more than just our nationality, let us dedicate our lives and our nation to a Kingdom that cannot be seen with eyes, and The King of that Kingdom will save us from ourselves.  He will bring our nation out.  Let us keep our eyes on The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.