There was a man named Micah, who lived in the hill country of Ephraim. One day he said to his mother, “I heard you place a curse on the person who stole 1,100 pieces of silver from you. Well, I have the money. I was the one who took it.” “The Lord bless you for admitting it,” his mother replied. He returned the money to her, and she said, “I now dedicate these silver coins to the Lord. In honor of my son, I will have an image carved and an idol cast.”
So when he returned the money to his mother, she took 200 silver coins and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into an image and an idol. And these were placed in Micah’s house. Micah set up a shrine for the idol, and he made a sacred ephod and some household idols. Then he installed one of his sons as his personal priest.
In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. One day a young Levite, who had been living in Bethlehem in Judah, arrived in that area. He had left Bethlehem in search of another place to live, and as he traveled, he came to the hill country of Ephraim. He happened to stop at Micah’s house as he was traveling through. “Where are you from?” Micah asked him. He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am looking for a place to live.” “Stay here with me,” Micah said, “and you can be a father and priest to me. I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, plus a change of clothes and your food.” The Levite agreed to this, and the young man became like one of Micah’s sons. So Micah installed the Levite as his personal priest, and he lived in Micah’s house. “I know the Lord will bless me now,” Micah said, “because I have a Levite serving as my priest.”
Micah and his mom - they seemed to be good, moral, giving people, and they seemed to really have a heart to serve God, but they let their own desires lead them rather than their obedience to God. This culture had gotten ok with just doing whatever each person thought was right for them. Being independent and self reliant are ok, but only when they are in alignment with the standards God sets for us.
Self-interest was where they were, and where we still are today. Time has not changed human, sinful, nature. Just like the people that lived during this time, people today are still replacing true worship with homemade worship - whatever works for you, works for me.
This Levite left home looking for a better paycheck, probably because the people were not tithing like they were supposed to, and the priest/Levites were bankrupt. Because of the moral decay of the people, so was the moral decay of some "serving" God.
It's been a minute since I have had a minute to sit down and write. It's been a minute since I have just had a minute to sit down. Every day is busy. Every day is full of things that are important and need to be done. Every day is crazy and beautiful and hard and tiring and incredible. It seems like a new sheep joins my little flock every week, and they are the most beautiful little sheep I have ever seen in my life! I myself am a fluffy little sheep skipping along as fast as I can behind my Shepard.
Here's where we are.....................................if you want to know where your support goes, I want to break it down for you.
I feed teenage boys just about every day. They are always hungry. I am trying to break them from craving McChickens and hot fries. This is an ongoing battle. Help me. A few love fruit, a few won't touch it. I will not give up the fruit fight.
Hair cuts. I get my hair cut, like once every 3 months. Mainly because I never have time to go get it done, or the money, because I am paying for 9,000 other hair cuts a week. Hair is really important to the boys. And when they think theirs looks "nappy", I'm over here like, "what are you talking about! it's 1 centimeter long!"
Clothes, shoes, school uniforms. This has been a year of growth spurts. I am not ready to handle that they are all getting bigger than me. Becoming like grown men. I am not ready for this. And this whole voice changing getting deeper thing..........I can't even go there right now.
Gas. Not the kind that is exceedingly frequent inside my car, but the kind that gets put in the car to drive all over the city of Jackson. I drive around a lot. I feel like the JTran sometimes. Same routes, same roads, same kids. One call, that's all. Jtran (Jamie Transportation) will pick you up wherever you are and take you wherever you need to go. That about sums it up.
Basketball games. I learned a very valuable lesson near the end of this year's season, that I am already preparing for, for next year's season. Had I known that you could buy a season pass from JPS for $30 to get you in any athletic event for the whole year, I could have saved about the same amount of money as the lottery just gave to someone. 2 to 4 games a week, 2 to 20 people that want to go. $5 a person. You do the math.
Phones. OMG. These phones are about to give me a phoneattack. Chargers, cases, minutes, etc......But how else am I going to keep up with them. I have to know they are OK every single day.
And then there are just all these other things. Birthday's, getting out and doing fun things together, school supplies, putting money on commissary accounts at the jail (some are on vacation there from time to time), you name it, I have probably been asked it and helped get it. Still not sure the guinea pig is going to happen though.........
And I haven't even talked about trying to rebuild a house yet. My mind tries to shut off somedays when I have to think about all that. But, if this house doesn't get finished, then none of this other stuff can get easier.
I can cook food and keep food in my kitchen. I have a friend that is a barber that we are already talking about having him come to the house every week to cut as many heads as possible on the back porch. I will have closets I can keep clothes in to share, and a washer and dryer to keep them all clean. I won't have to be driving all over the capital city, everyone can walk to my house. Basketball, well.....I learned my lesson on that one and can buy season passes for every.single.one.of.them.
The house is so, so, so close to being finished. It really is a miracle, the whole entire thing. I should be getting power and heat turned on in the next week. That is crazy when I think about where I started. I remember writing a post about believing for $50,000 to get it all done, and here I am with maybe less than $10,000 needed to completely finish it. I am to a place where I can say.....I WILL BE IN THERE BY SPRING BREAK.
This whole thing with Micah and his mom. I don't want to ever be so far away from God that I just "do what seemed right in their own eyes." And I don't want anyone to ever give or support not knowing what they were giving to and supporting. So that's what I got from Judges 17.
This was the kitchen. And this will be the kitchen. Where no more McChickens will be served.
