As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

• Proverbs 27:17

When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels.

• Genesis 24:22

Can anyone capture it by the eyes, or trap it and pierce its nose?

• Job 40:24

They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.

• Psalm 115:6

For as churning cream produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.”

• Proverbs 30:33

I will direct my jealous anger against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and your ears, and those of you who are left will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and daughters, and those of you who are left will be consumed by fire.

• Ezekiel 23:25

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

• Revelation 8:3-5

Have you ever had a stuffed up nose, from a cold, from sinus problems, from allergies, etc.  Instead of saying the words “stuffed up”, you might be heard to say “stubbed ub.”  You might being saying “rolled”, but it comes out “rowed.”  Instead of mold, gold, and told, you get mowed, goad, and toad.

This quiz is about what happens this time of year for a lot of people.

The first letter of each answer spells the solution to these mystery words.  There will be a first word, with the letter “L” missing.  The second word is spelled correctly.  All the answers to the questions are people’s names, except for one.

By the nature of this quiz, the questions are not in biblical order.  After the first question, the remaining questions are all women in the Bible.  The answer to question four is what the woman did for a living, since she is never named.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Who was the centurion who sent messengers to get Peter while Peter was staying in Joppa?  Peter came to his house and this man and his entire household accepted Jesus.
2	Who was Naomi’s other daughter-in-law, the one who did as Naomi requested and turned back to Moab?
3	Who was the only daughter of Israel?  At least the only one mentioned in Scripture.
4	Who did Saul seek to get information from Samuel, although Samuel was dead?  The NIV says she was a medium, but in most texts, they use the word associated with the “craft” she used.
5	Who was the mother of Timothy, who along with Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, had faith living within her?
6	Who saw that her husband, Nabal, was refusing to help David and his men, and she gathered food and presented it to David to protect her husband from David’s wrath?  Her husband then died, and she became another wife of David.
7	The first woman of this name was married to Judah’s son, Er, who was evil and died.  After Judah’s second son, Onan, died, Judah refused for her to sleep with his last remaining son.  So, who tricked Judah into sleeping with her so that she would produce a “grandson” for Judah’s family line?
8	Who was one of the many barren women of the Bible who prayed for a son?  She prayed so fervently that Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk.  God answered her prayers and she had a son, Samuel.
9	Who basically won a beauty contest to become queen of all Persia and in a position to save the Jews from annihilation?
10	Who was the prostitute who protected Joshua’s two spies, hiding them from the officials of Jericho?  She and her family were the only ones spared when Jericho was destroyed, and she would become the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth.

When I grew up in the South, I had a stuffed nose at least half the time.  In the winter, it was whatever bug was floating around at the time.  In the Spring, it was blooming season.  It was in the Spring that I went to the ear, nose, and throat doctor and he drained my sinuses.  It is amazing, and disgusting, how much fluid they can get out of your nasal sinuses.  Then, in the summer, my allergies to almost every grass imaginable kicked in, especially the grasses that the highway department planted along the roadside to cut down on erosion.  I could just look at that grass and get clogged up and break out in hives.  Then autumn was ragweed season.

Yes, I know what it is like to have a clogged nose.

But since I have been using a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), I have filtered air through my sinuses during the night.  I got the full-face masks because I was afraid of my nose clogging, but as long as I breathe through my nose, it does not clog.  I have awakened in the middle of the night to go to the restroom and in that brief one or two minutes, I have become completely clogged.  Saline sprays for a while, a lot of blowing of the nose into a handkerchief or two. And an hour of forcing myself to breathe through my nose, what little would get through.  And finally, I could breathe again and go back to sleep.

I am sure the filter on the CPAP is only for dust, but that and the positive pressure seem to keep my nose clear.

But I am dedicating this to my sister in Mississippi, and to all who suffer from sinus issues.  For over a month, if not longer, she has been talking with the “clogged nose” accent.  She was a speech therapist who enunciated everything carefully.  So, when she would answer the phone with something like “Hewo, I got a stubbed ub dohs,” I know she has started her winter season.

I love you, Sis!

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Who was the centurion who sent messengers to get Peter while Peter was staying in Joppa?  Peter came to his house and this man and his entire household accepted Jesus.	Acts 10
2	Who was Naomi’s other daughter-in-law, the one who did as Naomi requested and turned back to Moab?	Ruth 1:14
3	Who was the only daughter of Israel?  At least the only one mentioned in Scripture.	Genesis 30:21
4	Who did Saul seek to get information from Samuel, although Samuel was dead?  The NIV says she was a medium, but in most texts, they use the word associated with the “craft” she used.	1 Samuel 28:3-7
5	Who was the mother of Timothy, who along with Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, had faith living within her?	1 Timothy 1:5
6	Who saw that her husband, Nabal, was refusing to help David and his men, and she gathered food and presented it to David to protect her husband from David’s wrath?  Her husband then died, and she became another wife of David.	1 Samuel 25
7	The first woman of this name was married to Judah’s son, Er, who was evil and died.  After Judah’s second son, Onan, died, Judah refused for her to sleep with his last remaining son.  So, who tricked Judah into sleeping with her so that she would produce a “grandson” for Judah’s family line?	Genesis 38
8	Who was one of the many barren women of the Bible who prayed for a son?  She prayed so fervently that Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk.  God answered her prayers and she had a son, Samuel.	1 Samuel 1:1-20
9	Who basically won a beauty contest to become queen of all Persia and in a position to save the Jews from annihilation?	The book title being her name, chapter 2, verses 15-20
10	Who was the prostitute who protected Joshua’s two spies, hiding them from the officials of Jericho?  She and her family were the only ones spared when Jericho was destroyed, and she would become the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth.	Joshua 2:1-3

Writing these quizzes are fun for me to do, but I have two problems. 1) Of all the things that I write each week, I have my greatest “writer’s block” when thinking of a quiz.  Once I have a theme, I am fine, unless …  2) The differences in languages make some letters that begin names to be rare.  The known names of people beginning with “F” are Romans, namely the Roman governors Felix and Festus.  Fortunatus is less known.  But if you are looking for a person’s name from “W” to “Y”, you won’t find any.  Yahweh, as a name for God, is about all you are going to find, and Xerxes, a Persian or Mede name.  The letter “O” is rare for the women, and if you look through the women whose names start with “C”, would you get a question about Claudia or Chloe?  And Candace, the queen that the Ethiopian eunuch worked for, is spelled Kandake in the NIV.  Besides, scholars will say that Candace was the job title for a dynasty of queens.

Okay, that paragraph had a bit of a couple of hints in it, but it illustrates why several of my quizzes of this type have never been finished due to running out of reasonable questions to ask.

But in saying that, it becomes even more of a challenge for me to reach for other ways to get people to open their Bibles and read a little bit.  And if the story gives birth to interest in the topic, you might keep reading.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Who was the centurion who sent messengers to get Peter while Peter was staying in Joppa?  Peter came to his house and this man and his entire household accepted Jesus.	Acts 10	Cornelius	C
2	Who was Naomi’s other daughter-in-law, the one who did as Naomi requested and turned back to Moab?	Ruth 1:14	Orpah	O
3	Who was the only daughter of Israel?  At least the only one mentioned in Scripture.	Genesis 30:21	Dinah	D
4	Who did Saul seek to get information from Samuel, although Samuel was dead?  The NIV says she was a medium, but in most texts, they use the word associated with the “craft” she used.	1 Samuel 28:3-7	Witch of Endor	W
5	Who was the mother of Timothy, who along with Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, had faith living within her?	1 Timothy 1:5	Eunice	E
6	Who saw that her husband, Nabal, was refusing to help David and his men, and she gathered food and presented it to David to protect her husband from David’s wrath?  Her husband then died, and she became another wife of David.	1 Samuel 25	Abigail	A
7	The first woman of this name was married to Judah’s son, Er, who was evil and died.  After Judah’s second son, Onan, died, Judah refused for her to sleep with his last remaining son.  So, who tricked Judah into sleeping with her so that she would produce a “grandson” for Judah’s family line?	Genesis 38	Tamar	T
8	Who was one of the many barren women of the Bible who prayed for a son?  She prayed so fervently that Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk.  God answered her prayers and she had a son, Samuel.	1 Samuel 1:1-20	Hannah	H
9	Who basically won a beauty contest to become queen of all Persia and in a position to save the Jews from annihilation?	The book title being her name, chapter 2, verses 15-20	Esther	E
10	Who was the prostitute who protected Joshua’s two spies, hiding them from the officials of Jericho?  She and her family were the only ones spared when Jericho was destroyed, and she would become the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth.	Joshua 2:1-3	Rahab	R

The mystery words are “Co’d Weather.”  If you say it that way instead of “Cold Weather”, as in weather that usually leads to people getting colds, you may already be experiencing the “cold” that can cause a clogged nose.  I apologize to those who might have English as a second language, and the strange pronunciation of words with a clogged nose might confuse you.

It is strange.  A Humanities professor at a university in Augusta, GA was fed up with her class having a difficult time in writing a paragraph to answer test questions.  Their spelling was terrible, along with grammar issues, punctuation issues, etc.  So, she asked the class, trying to find an excuse to grade with mercy, “Who in this class learned English as a second language?”  Of the five who raised their hands, the professor was dumbfounded that my wife was one of the five.  My wife was the most articulate in class, top grades on every test, and eager to get into any discussion on any humanities topic (literature, philosophy, religion, fine arts, and history, especially how it relates to the other topics).  And she had never submitted anything other than a perfect test or homework submission.  The professor shouted my wife’s name in surprise.  My wife replied, “Really, I guess English was my third.”  And the second highest grade person in the class was from South America, learning the tribal language and Spanish before English.  They had to work hard, and they focused on getting it right.  And that is why Proverbs 27:17 was the first verse, with verses containing “nose” that followed.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Christ Church Choir singing Sweet Aroma of Praise.

Here is a song from Alma De Rojas singing The Fragrance of Christ.

Here is 3 Heath Brothers, singing Smell of Smoke.

And here is Sounds like Reign singing Sweet Hour of Prayer.  In Revelation 8, the burning of incense and the lifting of prayers to Heaven are considered pleasing aromas to the Lord.

Whether we have a clogged nose or not, we can raise a pleasing aroma to God by praying and praising Him.  We may not smell it, but He does.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.