Matthews Family Herald

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" from Joshua 24:15


"Shun the nonbeliever...SHUN!!!"


It's a topic joked about often by people, in general. It's an often misunderstood topic, but an important one. The concept of shunning is Holy Bible based, however, and so I don't let persons who may practice this incorrectly keep me from taking God seriously about it.


Unbelievers are not to be shunned. Jesus ate with unbelievers, cared about them, ministered to them. That's the whole point of Jesus coming right? You can't make disciples out of people if you can't be around them. But Jesus never meant to leave those unbelievers where they were or as they are. But no, He and we are not supposed to "shun the nonbeliever."
Certain professing believers may need to be shunned, however. So, the first step in gauging the shunning test is asking yourself..."Is this a professing believer we are talking about?"
Jesus protected a believer from being stoned at a well when she was caught in adultery. But, He next said "Go, and sin no more." There is the beginning. The ball is in the believer's court now. Persons who say they follow Him but then continually engage in sinful behavior, and defend that behavior as acceptable, well, we are told by God that "with such a person do not even eat."
A person aknowledging something is a sin and wanting to change is one thing; a person defending it but saying they are Christian and God is pleased, that's another. Shunning may eventually be something God requires of you for a person in that catagory.
It's Biblical, it might seem mean, but God uses it and commands it, as I understand it. It's not something you do rashly. There's a long road to go down with someone before you reach that point. If it's not done in love, but in anger, then it's not done correctly. But there it is.
"Is that so? Where is that found?" you might ask. 1 Corinthians 5:11 "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat."
So, there it is. It's the Word of God. God is good, all the time. Even when He commands us to "shun." I want to trust Him enough to obey. I love God above all and will sacrifice relationships with people in order to keep my relationship with God, if need be.


Just to briefly add on to the other post I made about "To the Weak I Became as Weak," my daughter reminded me, essentially, of this verse:


1 Corinthians 8:9 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.


and to add to that:

1 Corinthians 10:33 Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

Tieing those two together, insisting on my own liberty and freedom, even to the exclusion of others, is basically putting my profit above others.
Before I get going, someone might think I'm suggesting that in order to win others, I might or we might need to commit sin. We are not commanded to sin in order to be acceptable to all, absolutely not.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

With that cleared up, (Liberty in Christ is not permission to sin or an excuse to sin. Sin is not means to an end either) we may be required, however, in order to win others to the Lord, to do things that are not necessary for us personally, but necessary for those persons we are around in order to either function as part of the Body with them, or to win them to the Lord if they are not yet born again.
So, this means maybe we'll need to maintain a certain haircut, eat certain foods or abstain from certain foods. This may mean going to a church building or not going to one. This may mean putting on a certain uniform or clothes or submitting to certain frameworks or organizational structures that are temporal, but being used by the Lord for a purpose, and which may be where we are called "for such a time as this." Recalling now Esther who ended up serving a worldly King. The King raised her to a royal position, but God orchastrated the whole thing for a larger purpose and not for Esther's own gain. She gave up her will to God as was thus used to bring the deliverance of her people.

Esther 4:14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Thanks Rachel for reminding me of how selfish it can be to insist on certain liberties in Christ at the expense of others within the Body or without the Body.


We have been starved for body fellowship and doing home church with just us for the last year or so has been great in many ways, but we've felt like a hand deprived of it's body and malnourished in other ways.

Many of the homeschool families go to the PHV protestant chapel. We talked about it, going to one of those institutional church services, I mean, and I had many doubts as the time got closer.

Then Micah and I were downstairs talking about 1 Corinthians 9:22. "To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

I was referencing an unrelated topic but as we discussed becoming all things for all people in order to win at least some from among them, I thought about the context was Paul ministring to other Hebrews and weaker Christians who were legalistic in many ways. As I stated that yeah, like "Paul shaving his head for them, dressing like them in order to have that gateway in"


I realized that doing things like meeting in a building, dressing up a little bit, etc., while deemed as required from the point of view of a weaker brother (when actually it isn't required), might also be essential for us to offer the body at large what they need from us, in addition to being able to receive from them what we need.


If I'm stronger in my knowledge of what God requires, then I'm the one likely to need to bend for the weaker and so I should go to the building, put on the slacks, do what's needed to interact with them. Like Paul did. It sounds strange but it was an epiphany for me. It was the tool I needed to be obedient and to reconnect without compromising.


Growing up and not understanding some things as I do now, I often felt sad and left out concerning culture. I noticed the various things that other cultures have which makes them interesting. Their songs, dances, language, and their togetherness and support for one another.


When the color of my skin determined my sense of culture and belonging, I had very little. My earthly nationality/state origin/family heritage/etc. left me lacking as well. But after becoming a believer in Jesus and a follower of Him, I was transformed into a new creature. A royal priesthood. A holy nation. A peculiar people. A set apart people.


I taught my family today how we as believers in Jesus are a unique and transformed people, set apart for God and distinct from other nations, peoples, and cultures. We have our own God, our own culture, our own Book, our own Language, our own Law (of the Spirit), our own King, our own Country, our own Dances, our own Songs, our own Customs, our own Bread, our own Wine, our own Water, our own Purpose, our own History, our own Leaders, our own Failures, and our own Future. And we need each other.

We are (especially in the Western segment of our diaspora) wholesale forgetting who we are, where we've come from, what our culture is, and why we are here. We often look and act and talk and think and believe and do just as any of the others would. We are moving rapidly away from where we ought to be. We must fulfill why we are here and not be assimilated into the nations and peoples of the World. We are called to be among other peoples, but not to become other peoples. Quite the opposite. We are ambassadors sent to represent our God and our Nation before all and make the offer of invitation for Citizenship known. So, we must honor our God and strengthen our culture of faith amongst one another.
Our God has told us in our Book:

1 Peter 2:9
But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light


In our family, we occasionally come up with new words for things. I suppose this is how languages develop and change over time... It's sort of a humorous and cute thing in our family.

So, in terms of cutting a portion of pie or cake or something for yourself, we have these:


Slice - Yes, that's normal slice of pie.
Slighs - A slightly smaller slice of pie than normal. Maybe 1/2 a slice.
Sleece - A very thin slice of pie. 1/4 inch or less. Something like what you'd cut for yourself if you were trying to eat some of the pie without anyone being able to tell you sliced any
off.The problem is that everyone normally does this and so the pie disappears in
record time. The purpose of the Slighs you took is moot and the pie is gone.
I'm thinking of Congress just now. Don't know why...
Sleeghste - This is the newest addition. Micah came up with this one and it's basically the
crumbs or a crumb.

We are back to the slice now. Let's go the other direction.

Sloose - A bit of a large portion but not a ridiculous amount at all. Perhaps a slice and a half.
Sloghs - An obnoxiously large piece. Something like what Goliath might cut for himself.

Here's our Nathan who looks like he may have just woken up.


The kids were making bublle beards and here's a shot of Hannah acting silly while eating a cracker, wearing her beard.

Here's another shot of Nathan. His beard had really grown long in one spot.


Here's a couple of ropes we learned to weave together from dried Nettle and Palm leaves. Pretty cool, huh?

Micah continues to work on his sketching skills. Here's one of his latest creations.

I have to at least throw in one shot of Eden making a mess each time. This was a pasta night mess, if I recall.

There's a shot or two in this post left over from when the kids made "Tea Cakes" with Mom. Micah wasn't in the last shot but here he is with the rest of them. He's trying to sneak a cookie out from behind Jacob.

Heather continues learning more about herbal remedies and Hannah loves to help. Here she is helping Mom.

Heather and I laid out all of Heather's herbal stuff on the kitchen table in order to get a good photo for you all. Hannah is seen in the picture.

Heather makes a tea for relaxation and mood improvement. I put the tea she made beside the ingredients so you all could see it.

It was a cold winter night. I had stopped the van when one of the boys called out "I need to go pee!" Once word had gotten out that I'd let that boy go ahead and pee by the side of the road, the other two boys needed to go as well. I was pleased to capture this "relief" and comraderie so common when men brave the world's challenges, then stop and pee on tree.

Jacob has a learning laptop like device that has an exciting "Spy" theme. He often finds that dressing the part makes it even more fun!

Getting the photos out of sequence it seems. Hannah is here wearing her soap beard. Too cool! I always knew she had a bubbly personality.


It appears that old man winter has a son.

Here's a photo of Nathan when he was helping Mom in the kitchen with the tea cakes. That was some tasty cherry jam he was spooning into the middle of the cakes. He is a good boy.

My best friend, wife and mother of my children is so sweet and wonderful. She makes the best homemade bread I've ever had. Just the sight of those loaves she makes, not to mention the wonderful smell they produce throughout the house, is a treasure to enjoy. I just had to get a photo of them to share with you.

We love snow. Melted snow, that is, especially. We've made slushies out of it by adding flavorings and well, we just like the taste of it. We pretty much kept some in a deep pot all the time that snow has been available. You can catch any of us throughout the day scooping a little out to snack on throughout the day. We also find it makes great, cold and tasty drinking water. I had to rely on it for several days at one point when the water spring I go too was surrounded by too much snow to allow me to park nearby.

Here's the backyard from the 2nd story patio during snowy season.

Here's Super Eden snacking on a piece of "wonder" bread and wearing her cape.



















Hi family, friends, etc. I've mentioned before that we drive to a family farm in Mannheim about once per week in order to buy fresh, raw, unpasturized, etc., milk. Here's a picture of some of that delicious and fresh milk. Looks like something out of those old cartoons, huh?

I've mentioned that we draw water from various springs at the base of different mountains around where we live. Some springs flow more quickly than others. The one with the fastest water flow happens to also be the closest to our house. It's a very popular spring so I typically end up going at about 9 or 10pm. Here's a picture of the storage area we have. This lasts a little over a week. It is ice cold when first drawn, even in the summer and it is so very refreshing.

Micah decided to play the guitar that Rachel gave to him in a public are of the town in which we live. He had a lot of fun doing that. Later on, he and Jacob took turns hiding in trash cans and jumping out as people walked by. They also tied fishing string to a rubber snake and took turns hiding and pulling the string as a person walked by. They did surprise a few people and I believe they made someone a little upset, unfortunately. :)


Sweet Eden made a mess here. Isn't it strange how people love to take pictures of their kids making a mess!

We watched "Homesteading, Volume II" and were inspired in a number of ways. We are looking forward to the beginning of spring when we can go out and draw sap from nearby Maple trees and make our own syrup. But here is a picture of Eden making indentions with her fingers in the "Tea Cakes" that Heather and the kids made after watching the homesteading video. If you'd like to look at homesteading stuff, the folks that produced the video have a website: http://www.homesteadbeginners.info/ but we purchased it from Michael and Debi Pearl's No Greater Joy Ministries. http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/

Another shot of all the family working on those "Tea Cakes." I was busy making this blog post and Micah was "chilling out" beside me.


The kids and I made a snow igloo the other day. It was a full day's work, spread out over two days... Here is Micah working on it. To his right is his very good friend, Leon. He's really a good friend of the whole family. He's an excellent example of the wonderful people that most of the Deutschlanders we know are. He's very intelligent, creative, inventive, polite, respectful, and confident. He's been a good friend to Micah and together they are becoming fluent in one another's languages and sharing their cultural differences together. Hannah is seen here also with her new Raggedy Anne doll. She has one of each now, along with an old copy of the original Raggedy Anne and Andy stories. A bit different than what is out there now. The New World Order, global elite athiest assimilators would not allow this kind of book in the library as far as I can tell.


Here's Micah and Nathan together near the finished product. We learned how to make the snow igloo by reading a couple of different wilderness survival books. The little sticks that you can see in the igloo helped us not to dig too far into the walls as we cleared out the inside space.


Hannah is seen here inside the snow igloo. It was hard to get a good photo of it but Hannah's feet are there just inside the entrance and her head is seen way back there. I think Nathan or Jacob was the person sitting in there with her. When it was finished, they could not stand up in it but they could sit up. Three people could lie down in it fairly comfortably. Unfortunately, the next day the tempurature warmed back up and after three days, the thing had collapsed inside.

Here's another picture in the early stages of the snow house. Jacob is near the entrance this time.


All the kids received art supplies from our good family friends, the Bacherts. Micah has done some very nice pencil sketches and I wanted to share them here. Micah did this funny pose for your entertainment.


Here's a more serious shot of Micah at work.

Here's a scene that Micah did which was inspired by the beauty of Germany. Rolling hills of farmland. A church below. Castle wall in the distance. City factories spinkled here and there. A castle and a log cabin to the far right area (hard to see in this photograph, the fault lying with the camera.) An airplane in a beautiful sky above. (Click on the images to see a better and larger rendition.)


Also, here is Micah's pencil sketch of a log cabin. Heather's first reaction when seeing it was "Beautiful! I want to live there, Micah!" I really wish we could. Lord willing, we'll be in a place like this soon. Farmsteading, I mean. Another great example of the talent which the Lord has blessed Micah with.


Okay, I have to tell you how wonderful the meal was that my wife prepared for me. She prepared some very fine cuts of beef for me along with a sauteed vegetable medley on the right of the plate. The noodles were so delicious with buttery, baby shrimp throughout. The best part, though, was enjoying it as a little mini date with my Heather. I'm truly blessed!

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