An amazing match

 When I was working on the Siderfin book (and I do need to revise it unless someone else does as the index is incorrect with page numbers). Sometimes it is right but I think in general the further you get from the front of the book the less accurate it is. However, I had a match with a descendant of the Siderfin family in Ancestry. Her daughter has now tested at My Heritage and I am able to see how much we match. The match is smaller (actually more than 50% smaller) and with the use of TIMBER I have no idea how large the actual match was but we share 4x great grandparents Robert Siderfin and Grace Kent and this new match would be my 5th c 1xr. Amazing that the mother with her mother was so much larger but occasionally I did inherit Siderfin matches that were larger but primarily my other siblings inherited those matches. 

Church today was one of those special sermons that  was delivered by the Right Reverend Peter Coffin who is filling in for this part of the summer. It is very pleasant to see him back in the pulpit as he was Dean of the Cathedral when we first moved from Dominion Chalmers to the Cathedral as Edward decided that it was time that he supported me with my Church as I had attended his United Church for many many years. I was extremely flexible on the Church that I attended as my Uncle/maternal Grandmother had been United Church and I went with them as a child when I visited which was often enough actually. I was familiar with the United Church. But I must admit I was happy to go although I had been attending the local Anglican Church at early service for quite a few years and then went to the later service at Edward's United Church with all the family. The readings at the moment include Romans and the sermon addressed this very interesting Book of the New Testament and I found it most interesting to hear his thoughts on Romans. 

Well time to run and get my exercise. I will continue looking at the new matches in My Heritage as I have already marked two new ones that are interesting but will not add them to my database at this time but this new one for Siderfin I certainly will.  

The simplest way

I think it is a truism that the simplest way works best anything convoluted results in a meandering path that is difficult to follow. Deuteronomy points that out to us throughout the many chapters in this book. The rules of life that need to be there in order that God can continue to walk with man, in this case He chose the Israeli people whom he freed from slavery in Egypt. It was a hard and difficult path that the Israeli peoples had to follow and this Book of Deuteronomy was a continuation of how that path had to flow. 

 Although I was skeptical of the story that the early peoples of the British Isles were descendants of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, re-reading the first five books of the Bible has reinforced my thoughts in that regard. It was just a thought that grew in the 1800s and was thought about and then shared with this granddaughter when she was just five or six and my grandfather was 75 years of age. As I continue to read I will learn more about the movements of the Israeli people particularly during the times of the Babylonian Empire and all the other Empires that have risen and fallen through the centuries but the Old Testament deals primarily with the time period up to the birth of Jesus Christ. 

 Joshua is the next book of the Bible and I will read that beginning on Monday. I must admit I am not yet seeing the promise of a Saviour/a Messiah but the people of Israel are following the laws of God as they enter into the Promised Land. Moses has prepared them well for the road ahead and Joshua will lead them following the laws that God has given them. That is how I see this by the end of the book of Deuteronomy. I think that fear of the words kept me from really understanding the flow of words in the Bible when I was younger. 

I awoke in the night and read my chapters a bit earlier than usual. I will go back to sleep soon but sometimes my mind becomes too busy and I can not sleep. A lot of items are in my mind at the moment. 

The best way to reach our goals with our military spending is also the simplest way. The GST should never have been reduced. It was done to buy votes and I absolutely hate that. Put forward a decent platform and defend it well but do not buy votes with stupid promises to reduce it in his case it was the GST to be reduced to 5% and it should have remained at 7% because it supports government expenditure and in this case it needs to be directed towards defense spending (we were even told that was always the plan to reduce it to 5% and there was no such plan announced by the then Prime Minister Mulroney and it was a fabrication). Raise it 1% every six months as the employment improves and our projects start to pay their way - no rush, the submarines are still a while off. We need to tighten the belt that keeps us on a good and straight path towards adequate defense and an adequate life for the people of Canada. The big item is to live at home when you graduate (unless you can not because you found a job away from home) until you are financially sound so that you can go out in the world buy that beginner home and live your life.  

The forest fires in Quebec are affecting the air here and we have a smoke day for today. I had planned to weed the front gardens but it will wait for another day. Hopefully it will pass quickly and we will be back to clean air once again. 

I did some work on the matches yesterday looking at My Heritage and Ancestry. There are some new large matches on My Heritage that may be helpful but I will use the note feature to attach them to a grandparents unless I see value in extracting the match into my files. 

Perhaps I will work a couple of solitaire puzzles to put me back to sleep once again.  

My waking up in the night and working was common during the period that I proofread at home when my daughters were young. I would just do a couple of hours of proofreading and then back to sleep. Now in my 80s it has become a somewhat rarer event. 

Sunday and off to Church in another hour and a bit. I have been watching some YouTube videos on the first five books of the Old Testament and there have been comments where the narrator has put forward the idea that within these readings there is mention of the Messiah to come and help the Israeli people with the heavy task that had been placed upon them. What I read is that the task set upon the Israeli people in order to have God live with them was very exacting and precise and any infringement was punished immediately. I do not see any movement away from that precise and exact adherence to the rules set down in the Torah. I do know that I am reading towards the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah.  

The trees

 All my life as long as I can remember I have loved trees. When the Dutch Elm Disease reached London back in the 1950s I watched as the disease took one tree after another all the way down Wellington Street. These beautiful trees down the middle of the road were gone so quickly and I think the city did truly mourn their loss. That is why London was called the Forest City and still has that nickname although heard less often now. 

In the readings today from Deuteronomy Moses tells us that God said:  Chapter 20, Verse 19: .... you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them ..... Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you?" Such beautiful words as we are now into the season when forest fires (many many of them natural caused by lightning strikes) are common throughout our forested areas. It is sad to see the trees burn but going to Obatanga Provincial Park just west of Wawa in Northern Ontario (nearly 10,000 hectares of wilderness) a couple of years after a forest fire we found fields full of orchids and other fascinating wild flowers Edward and I on our travels with our trusty canoe in the north. It was absolutely beautiful. Edward had never really traveled anywhere before we married and after we bought the car we went so many places like that to see the beauty of the world around us. The trees left standing were blackened but some recovering and new growth everywhere. It was both sad and beautiful all at the same time. 

Rereading the first five books reminds me of all the Laws that Israel was required to keep in the Promised Land. The last set of chapters continue with the laws and they were many. I still do not sense that God is yet telling Moses to tell us that He will send a Messiah to the people. To me the first Five Books of the Bible are telling me the ancient story of Creation and the length of time from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy is to me a very long period encompassing so much that has happened in the world since its beginnings. I remember as a child someone saying (I think he was a priest from another place (I was very young)) that a day at the beginning could have been many years as God created this beautiful world we live in. I think he might have been a student actually as I contemplate this individual and not yet consecrated as a priest (vague memory now from so long ago). I was a restless child always and my mother would hold me down in the seat to keep me quiet but this time I listened so carefully to what was said as I remember it still. I was maybe four years of age as I recall it was when I first went to kindergarten I think and was learning to sit still. But the laws that the Israeli people must obey are clearly outlined by Moses particularly in Deuteronomy. 

Yesterday a very busy day of weed pulling. The tomatoes are now free once again of all that weed that was amongst them. They continue to grow quickly with fruit upon them not yet ripe. We also planted an herb (Basil) in the shade that we bought grocery shopping. Still more weeding to do and perhaps some today; time will tell. 

I have not accomplished any work but did look at new matches as the beginning of the month passed and I did not do that. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

The Torah

The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah and are the foundational texts of Judaism - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Continuing reading Deuteronomy which, to me, represents Moses preparing the people of Israel to enter into the Promised Land and to hand over his leadership to Joshua. Perhaps one of my most vivid memories of Sunday School was the trumpets under Joshua that heralded that entry of the people of Israel into the Promised Land. At least that was the way that I saw it as a child. The reading is certainly not quite so direct but none the less it was Joshua who led the people of Israel forward into the land that had been promised to their forefather Abraham and continuing to his son Isaac and his son Jacob. In Chapter 10 of Deuteronomy the essence of the law is expressed by Moses to the people of Israel:  Verses 12-14:  O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. 

 Another busy day yesterday buying groceries and it poured as we rushed back to the car with our grocery cart but we had worn rain coats so somewhat ready for that. But it was a very heavy downpour. The tomato plants have enjoyed it for sure. Salmon for dinner with potato salad and lettuce salad. The summer meals are always somewhat simple but energizing. All of the vegetables are now grown in Canada as our growing season is now well past the length for producing food for the plate. So much of the year we must buy usually from the United States or use stored food which is fine but fresh is even better. 

No work done but winter is around the corner and lots will get done. I need to weed today and will do that. The heavy rain will make that an easy task. Perhaps two or three bags of gardening weeds for the pickup on Monday. 

One item we did get done was all that scanning that we needed to do and had collected up. We have a couple of big scanning projects - my husband's thesis still not yet done and some other items that he had done through the years but not published. Some pictures of flowers in the northern woods that I find to be exceptional we want to put into a book in his memory of all those travels we did by car and then by canoe into the backwoods of Northern Ontario. So much to do and time will tell how much I accomplish in that regard. 

Exercises done a while ago now as I awoke early. Breakfast soon but first solitaire puzzles.  

 

Obedience

 Chapter 4 of Deuteronomy and Moses is retelling the story of the Ten Commandments which God gave to the people of Israel to follow and in particular the first and second Commandments.

Chapter 5 of Deuteronomy  Moses knew he would not enter into the Promised Land and now as the time approached he repeated once again the commandments which must be kept at all times in all places through the generations beginning thus. 

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;  you shall have no other gods before[b] me. 

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 

Continuing to read and Chapter 9 details the consequences of rebelling against God. Moses again reminds the people of Israel that it is the wickedness of the nations that they are to displace because God is fulfilling his oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob their direct ancestors. All of the children of Israel are descendant of Jacob (God changed Jacob's name to Israel).  

These are stories I have heard and read so many times as a child and a young adult without really understanding I am thinking. At 80 plus I am reading once again the words of God as told by the writers of the Old Testament. As I looked at the news today there was an interesting article talking about "the Great Filter" and where Homo sapiens is with regard to existence in the universe. Scientists querying why we do not see other life forms like our own in the universe. Coming from a science background I am always mystified by stories like this as I always felt that the Bible clearly explained why we exist. To me it is a plausible story and the mystery that surrounds the first peoples of the world as told by word of mouth and later written down is exactly that a mystery to us that is solved as we read the words of the Bible. Belief in the Creator God has been for all time a lamp in the wilderness beckoning us back to the rules which God gave to the Israelis. The simplified story of Creation in Genesis was written to make us understand that we did have a beginning; the time frame totally unknown but is it something that can be reduced to a scientific explanation. Atheism is foreign to mankind as it blots out God and the words of our ancestors and must be avoided in my humble opinion. 

Yesterday I finished the cleaning and the basement is ready to go once again. Some shopping done and then a walk on the beach and kayaking completed the day. Dinner was late but greatly enjoyed as once again cold chicken and two salads to complete the meal. Summer is an interesting time with all the freshness around us. Because we live in a northern climate we really appreciate summer when it arrives although a lot of us have air conditioning which makes a huge difference. 

Solitaire puzzles to do. I did complete the Blake Newsletter yesterday and will submit it for review today.