Hurry Up!

The country living blog for today is entitled: Hurry Up!

Greetings Everyone!

We just wanted to inform you all about a very important step before moving out to the country.  Take some time out to check your areas out.  Make sure you check for your city data to see how many people live around the area you\’re looking into.  Check to to see how country or rural the area is.  We want to also mention that it takes lots of time to get adjusted to your land.  We\’ve been here at our country home for little over a year and we\’re just now getting used to the different insects that live here.  We are getting more acclimated to our environment and to the climate.

A few months ago, there was a really bad ice storm in our Southern Virginia location.  We have never experienced that type of weather in several years since moving from Southern Maryland.  We just want to say that it was a very strenuous experience trying to maneuver through the days without electricity, without water, without being able to warm food.  It takes lots of preparation.  Some of you think that you will just move to the hills at the very last moment.  It doesn\’t work like that.

We also want to mention that when we first moved here, we never heard the wind the way that we\’ve heard it before.  It\’s funny because this year we believe God is giving us a break with the wind.  It\’s not as bad as it was last year.  We\’ve also noticed that the spiders aren\’t bad as they were last year.  The weather is also not as bad as it was in general.  We\’re just now entering Spring.  We\’re not sure what this Spring and Summer will bring but we just want to say it takes time.

If you\’re gonna make your move to the country, you should start looking now and make moves now – sooner rather than later, because you will have to get used to your land.

Another thing to note is that it has taken us a year to be outside in the dark without having any lights on outside.  We have walked from our house to our main road in the dark a few times.  It can make you extremely nervous not knowing what\’s in out the dark but it\’s also a Faith walk.  It\’s just like moving to the country was a Faith walk for us.

Always remember, God\’s Words tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:7 ~ \”For we walk by faith, not by sight.\”

We hope this will give you some encouragement today.

  • Antajuc

Seedlings

We\’ve planted these seeds for at least 3 to maybe 4 weeks. Out of all these planted, we have one strong seedling that is standing.

The lesson that we\’ve learned is no matter how strong you are with your Christianity (Faith); there could be a whole lot of people professing to know Christ, to love Christ, professing to be Christians, reading their bibles and praying, saying they are so saved and sanctified, but at the end of the day, there\’s only one of those seeds standing. Remember Noah and his family, out of the whole World,  there were a little bit of folks standing – and that was just eight people.

May we live our lives so that we will be the last people standing just like this seedling.

  • Antajuc

Pruning Your Fruit Tree

A new lesson learned from our garden at our country home is about \”Pruning Your Fruit Tree.\”

What I\’ve learned is that before you begin to prune a tree, you must first walk up to that tree, look at that tree, look at how the tree is growing, analyze the tree by looking at the branches, etc.  Then you want to see which branch is the main stem because the main stem of the tree is where all the other branches get their power from.  When you begin to cut, you want to first cut at an angle, giving it a nice cut so that when it rains, the rain will not land on the exposed branch and cause it to be infected or cause some type of fungus.

 

What I\’ve learned in my life is that you have to consistently analyze your growth in Christ. You have to consistently analyze who\’s around you. You have to question, \’Who\’s growing around you?\’ and \’Are they growing around you in the proper way?\’  When a fruit tree grows, it wants to grow outward. God told us to go out and teach all nations as specifically noted in the Bible in the book of Matthew, chapter 28, verses 19 & 20; \”Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.\”

 

When fruit trees properly grow, they grow outward, not inward.  We don\’t want any branches growing inward toward the crown. We want that crown to be free to give the power to the fruit tree and branches.

 

What I have learned is that sometimes there are people in your life that will want to grow in your life. But maybe they\’ve given you gifts like money, or types of worldly support that you really count on. When you compare that with the lesson of pruning a fruit tree, sometimes you may walk up to the fruit tree and think, \’Man. I\’ve got to cut this branch off because it\’s about to produce a lot of fruit.\’  But if it\’s not growing in the right way nor in the right direction, you\’ve got to prune that fruit tree branch off. If you don\’t cut it while the tree is young, fragile and still growing and decide to wait 10 – 15 years, that branch that you should have cut off – but didn\’t – can really damage the tree. It can kill the whole tree and now you\’ve wasted 15 years with that tree and now it\’s about to die because you let that branch grow in a way that\’s detrimental to the growth of the tree.

 

I say all of that to say this: When you go through life, there\’s going to be some people that you have to cut off and you have to cut them off early.  If you don\’t, it\’s going to be harder and harder and harder and harder to cut them off in the years.

For ladies, who are dating that guy for years and years and years, shacking up, having pre-marital sex and you keep doing it, it\’s going to be harder to cut that guy off years and years and years down the line because you may now have babies – now producing fruit like the fruit tree. It\’s going to be harder because now you don\’t want to cut that branch off due to the fruit produced (babies/children) from the fruit of your womb.

For men, vice-versa in the same way.

 

We\’ve got to understand when we grow in Christ, we need to analyze ourselves and analyze our growth and who\’s growing around us.  We need to ask ourselves are they going to be detrimental or are they going to help us grow outward in Christ.

 

That\’s what I learned with \’Pruning the fruit tree\’ and that is the title of this message. I hope that you all are Blessed. I pray that you all whom are seeking a country home, to really do it now because these lessons are very, very uplifting; because we want to grow out and spread out as a fruit tree.  We don\’t want to be crowded in the cities because in order for us to grow (like for a fruit tree to grow) we need space.  In order for us to bear fruit, we need to cut off those limbs that are detrimental to the tree: limbs meaning worldly people or whomever it may be in your life that\’s not helping you grow towards Christ or bear the Gospel truth which is the fruit.  We are preparing to receive the fruit of the tree of life when Jesus comes back.

 

I pray for you all and I pray that this message reaches someone. I pray for God\’s people whom are preparing to stand for the evil days that are coming.

 

Be Blessed!

 

~ Antajuc Acres

Natural Soap Making

Hi,

So we just started getting into soap making… aka \”soaping\” – so that we can sell soaps at our retreat center.  Well it just so happens that I added too much oil to my soap.  And it seemed as thought the batch was going to be messed up.  But as I let it sit overnight, it turned out to be ok.

 

Well, in this life, just like my other blog post talked about time, (>> Time for Thyme <<), it takes time. Everything that we do takes time. Just like gardening takes time, soap making takes time.  Did you know that in order to get the soap to its full effect and to make it super soapy, you have to allow it to sit for six weeks??…. \”PERIOD\”

 

Well the object lesson from soap making is that just like farming takes time and gardening takes time and soap making takes time, well our characters take time and canning takes time.

 

Although all of these things take time, it goes to show me that God is so loving and gracious that He gives us time to get things right; with others, with Him.  He gives us the opportunity to gain a better relationship.  And even though we mess up, and things may look like they\’re messed up, He still comes through for us and he still fixes it.  And just like my soap which looked like it was going to be an epic failure, God turned the situation around for me.  And now it seems like it\’s going to be ok. It\’s going to be saved.  One key thing I wanted to mention is that I prayed before I made my soap.  And I prayed during my soaping process; that it would turn out – or – something that was supposed to be a mess up would end up turning out right.  And today, you know, when you make soap, you let it sit for 24 hours and then you cut it so that it can cure.  I was able to cut it.  Usually, it will crumble and fail.  But God allowed me to be able to cut it so that the soap would be saved and my ingredients would be saved.

 

So these are my messages for today in reference to soap making in our characters.

Have A Blessed Day!

 

 

Country Living: Farming…

Hello Everyone.

 

 

The lessons that I\’ve learned thus far in country living is that some of you think that you\’ll be running to the hills when Sunday laws are passed.  But this is not so…  There are so many lessons to be learned when purchasing a country property.

 

 

Take for instance; our soil that needs to be revived.  So in order to really produce effective crops, we have to make sure that our soil is ready.  What I mean by that is that maybe our soil is too acidic and therefore, we can\’t grow the right crops in that area.  So now we have to get that area together so that we can now produce crops.  You may have to add certain things such as lime; such as fertilizer; maybe grass seeds. You might have to till it and you may not have the tractor.  You may have to contact a farmer in the area or wait until you buy a tractor to till your own land.

 

So I just want to be very clear and specific about when you move out to the country.  Sometimes things are not what they may seem or what they may appear to be.  You may be so excited to leave out, however, your property might not be ready to produce crops as you would like so that you could be in the industry of buying and selling.

 

It\’s so important to move out now so that you can get acclimated to your property; so that you can adjust to your soil; so that you can fix things before the time comes when you can\’t buy or sell.

 

Before I end this blog, I just wanted to say it takes time and time takes care of everything.  So be encouraged.  \”Understand inch by inch, anything\’s a cinch.\”  That\’s what they always say in the country.  lol

 

Thank You.

~ Antajuc Acres