Do We Really Believe What We're Saying?

Here is a link to a youtube video with David Platt (author of Radical) asks us to consider if we really believe what we say we believe. I found it to be very powerful and thought you'd appreciate it too.
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We did - hopefully I'll post pics one of these days. :)
Have a wonderful week!

Rose Colored Glasses - repost

This post was originally posted in Nov. 09, but I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the truth that God showed me and I thought you might like to see again (or for the first time). :) Enjoy and have a wonderful week glorifying God in your life (which will not look like anyone else's life - it's not meant to). :) Here's a thought to share with you. (I've actually been meaning to post this for a month now.) If you're like me, I tend to look at people through rose colored glasses and think that everyone else has it together. People I admire surely never fuss at their kids, their kids must always treat each other sweetly and the parents respectfully, and, oh yes, surely their house is always clean and orderly. Now in my head, I know that's not right. We're all sinners and (believers) are being sanctified. But, I sure fall into the rose colored glasses trap. Here's a picture that my 3rd daughter took last month. The flowers were a birthday gift for my grandmother. When I saw the picture, I was amazed at how pretty it looked and wondered where she took it. You must understand that, by default - not choice, our house tends to be decorated with clutter. I'd love to be orderly and organized but fall far short of that goal. In the picture above, I thought it looked so nice and decluttered, I wondered where she took the photo. Here's the other half of the story:

If you, like me, tend to look at other people and think they have it all together, you may be seeing a close up shot of the flowers and not a total picture (as above). God is good and He is perfect - people aren't and we should never let ourselves think they are. :)

Have a great day!

Tim Hawkins - Homeschool Comedy & Homeschool Blues Song

This weekend I have the opportunity to attend a homeschool conference. I love these things! They always get me so excited - getting to put my fingers on great material to check it out and hearing speakers encouraging us as we follow this direction that God's leading us. Homeschooling is a great part of our life and I love it. In honor of homeschooling, I wanted to share this video from comedian Tim Hawkins. He cracks us up! It begins with a few homeschooling jokes (he was homeschooled and he and his wife homeschool their 4 children) and ends with a song "Homeschool Blues". Hope you enjoy!

We’ve Got It Backward Secret Church blog post

Life has been so crazy busy around here lately that I haven’t been making time to post. However, I really appreciated your comments MariBeth, Stacie, and Jackie. (By the way, my oldest daughter raves about the book Heavenly Man. It’s on my to read list.) Here’s another post I wanted to share with you from the Secret Church blog. There’s a link at the bottom if you want to join and have these posts delivered daily to your email.

Also, wanted to recommend the book Radical by David Platt. It’s a truly God glorifying, let’s get somethings straight in line with Scripture, and very challenging book. It’s basically taking a look at the American dream (what can be a very self-focused pursuit of pleasure) and a look at what following Jesus looks like Biblically. It's suggesting that the American church has a blind spot (materialism for one) as we're seeking that American dream that’s causing us to miss things. I’ve read it once myself and once as a family read aloud. I’ve thought about reading it through again and posting thoughts on each chapter because I'm a slow learner. :) (Someone reading it will tell me parts of a chapter that challenged him and I barely remember that chapter - yep, gotta read it again.) Anyway, if you hadn’t heard of it, I highly recommend it. (You can also get free downloads of David Platt’s sermons on itunes. He faithfully speaks Biblically correct, and normally uncomfortable in our culture, truth.)

Here’s the Secret Church blog post:

WE’VE GOT IT BACKWARD

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 11:00 AM PDT

By Drew Carson When I hear Americans talk about the persecuted church I can’t help but think that we’ve got it backward. During my years of ministry in North Africa and the Middle East, I’ve heard dozens of stories of ostracism, abuse, imprisonment and even murder as Muslim-background believers struggle to live out their faith. But despite these hardships, the label “persecuted church” is foreign to these believers. They don’t see themselves that way. They believe they’re normal, because they read in the New Testament that persecution is what Christ-followers should expect. They are literally living out the Book of Acts. What many believers in my area of the world do recognize, however, is strangeness about us. I was talking with a friend not long ago who often bumps into Western Christians. He says it takes him “forever” to find out that they’re believers. Another friend who’s from the Arabian Peninsula met many Christians while studying in the United States. But he had to go back to his home country — which ranks among the world’s top offenders for religious persecution — to hear about Jesus. He doesn’t understand why Christians in America are so afraid to share their faith. Sometimes he wonders if Americans know Christ at all. Yes, there is persecution. Yes, we need to pray for the countless Christians around the world who live with fear and pain most of us cannot imagine. But frankly, I hear the persecuted church praying for us — that we will not be such lukewarm and weak people, who, at the first sign of opposition, give in and shrink from sharing what Christ has done for us. Make no mistake — American Christians do face persecution, albeit in a different way. We’re persecuted because we have a way of life to protect and we’re not going to do anything to jeopardize it. We face intimidation as our culture pushes Jesus toward irrelevance. That’s a form of persecution because it inhibits us from fully living out our identity in Christ. We are addicted to our comfort, and for our comfort’s sake we’re not willing to take a risk. Satan uses pain in some places and pleasure in others. So what do we do? I want American believers to recognize the incredible moment in history in which we are living; a time when the Muslim world is opening as societies undergo rapid change. It is highly important for us to find ways to be involved in the midst of that change. This is not a time to sit back — this is a time to risk a lot for the Lord.

It is my hope that every Christian in America will reach out to people from North Africa and the Middle East and build relationships with them through which the Gospel can flow. Most have never heard. We can change that.

________ Drew Carson, and his wife, Julie, have spent 18 years sharing Christ’s love in North Africa and the Middle East. They have three children.

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Western Church Compared to Persecuted Church

Today I received a blog post that I found very thought provoking and powerful.  This person has been to the underground church in Asia and shares his experiences and the different dynamics of their churches versus our churches here in America.  Thought you’d be blessed by it too.  (In another post I’ll tell you about Secret Church which is where this blog post came from.) :)

Secret Church

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HOUSE CHURCHES OF ASIA

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 11:00 AM PDT

By Dr. George Guthrie

Several years ago I had the great privilege of teaching a group of house church ministers from a closed country in Asia.  For a week we spent the bulk of every day in lectures on the books of Hebrews and James, delivered through a translator.  Then, in the evenings we came back together for a couple of hours of sharing and a question and answer time.  It was exhausting, profoundly fulfilling, and life-changing for me.  I went thinking I was going to meet a need (and there is need there), but my perspective on the need and the needy changed in the experience.

Our house church brothers and sisters really get how profoundly their lives and ministries depend on God’s Word and prayer.  Not the right programs plus God’s Word and prayer.  Not a gifted communicator plus God’s Word and prayer.  Not enough resources, or education, or buildings, or connections, or technology plus God’s Word and prayer.  I struggle against an attitude (and I am guessing you do too, if you think about it) that says, “We need a place to meet, and a rockin’ band, and a gifted preacher, and a strong core (which will mean an adequate budget), and a right growth strategy—and then we will orient ourselves to the Word and we will plan a time for prayer.  I think my brothers and sisters in the house churches would see this as strange and profoundly backwards.  Depending on where they are in the country I visited, they do deal with such issues as money (although many of them, even those with 1,000+ member congregations, take no salary), and where to meet (although most of them do not have a church building and have to shift locations constantly due to security issues).  But my strong impression is that the greatest difference in our two church cultures is that they take the Word and prayer far, far more seriously than we do, as if their lives and their churches literally depended on them.  Of course, they know they do.  In our great, oppressive wealth of resources, I don’t think most of us in the West do.  If all of the resources, all the budgets, all of the buildings, all of the programs in your city were shut down suddenly, what would happen to the Christian movement there? 

Having been deprived of buildings and resources and education and strategies—all of our “advantages”—our brothers and sisters in the persecuted house churches of the world go with utter dependence on the Spirit’s work through prayer and the Word.  They know those are the non-negotiable, solid foundations on which the work of God is built, just as we find in the book of Acts.  In fact, when I was with the brothers and sisters from the western part of that country, they told me stories of the advancement of the gospel and healings, of exorcisms and amazing interventions by God, that reminded me very much of Acts.  This dynamic experience of the Word and prayer touched me personally.

While I was there my wife, who was back home, got very sick and was experiencing a strong sense of spiritual oppression.  When I asked the group I was with to pray for her, all of them immediately stood up and spent the next thirty-five minutes praying heart-felt, urgent prayers to God, pleading on behalf of my wife.  When I asked the interpreter what they were praying, she said, “It was almost pure Scripture.” Within twenty-four hours, both the physical symptoms and spiritual oppression had lifted from Pat.

Every setting has its strengths and weaknesses, and God moves in different ways in different parts of the church at different times in history.  But I discovered in Asia an intense hunger for the Word and a profound passion for prayer that we in the West desperately need.  May God grace us with both, for in my travels I found the truly needy church—when I returned home.

________

Dr. George Guthrie serves as the Benjamin W. Perry Professor of  Bible at Union University in Jackson, TN. At Union University he has led in the establishment of, and serves as Senior Fellow in, the Ryan Center for Biblical Studies, which is committed to promoting sound Bible reading, study, and interpretation at the grassroots level of the church.  Dr. Guthrie holds both the Ph.D. and the M.Div. degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Th.M. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. You can follow Dr. Guthrie by clicking HERE.

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Jesus' Example

Another precious bit of encouragement God's given me in His word:





In Luke 9 we read about Jesus sending out the disciples to preach the gospel (having given them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases). Picking up in vs. 10 & 11,





"On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing."





As a follower of Jesus (and as a mom), I find such an example to follow here. I'm sure that Jesus and His disciples were looking forward to being alone and having some uninterrupted time. How often do I have the same types of desires, my own plans for a moment. However, when the crowd followed, Jesus welcomed them and taught them and met their needs. When my girls were little, I often was followed no matter where I went. (I tease saying that in our house a closed door is simply a door waiting to be opened.) :) No matter where I went, even the restroom, it often seemed someone needed me. I remember at that time, reading the above passage and receiving such encouragement. No matter where Jesus went, someone needed Him. And how did He respond? He welcomed them. He taught them. He met their needs. As His follower, how can I do less? (Of course this requires walking in the Spirit and putting it in His hands. In the flesh and in my hands, I'm a mess and feel sorry for those around me!) :)

I'm so thankful for Jesus' example and His empowering Holy Spirit working in us!

Sanctity of Life

Yesterday was officially sanctity of human life Sunday. This day we bring to the foremost of our thoughts how precious life is, given by our Creator, and the grievous sin we commit when we act as if we have control of it (and in our country, allow it to be snuffed out in the womb).

Last Feb. our family had a very personal, dear experience with the preciousness of life when we welcomed and said good bye to our precious nephew in a brief 2 hour period. Little Eli was on my mind all day yesterday. (Thinking of him and what we've learned through his life literally brought me to tears as we stood in church praising Jesus that He has conquered death.) How precious to picture Eli in our Savior's arms right now worshipping Him. His brief life has brought so many to God's throne. My sweet sister-in-law wrote a precious post about the sanctity of life. You can read her post here. I absolutely love her blog and think that you will be blessed by visiting it.

Rejoice, praising God, and glorifying Him with this precious life we've been given - the beginning of eternity! :)

Have a wonderful week!

Catch Up

Thought you might like a few photos to highlight a couple things we've been up to since the New Year began.

We started 2011 with a New Year Day dinner at my mom & dad's. R made a cake. Cake decorating is a hobby of hers and this was the first time she got to try fondant and gum paste. (Something I'd never even heard of until we watched Cake Boss. R was aware of it though.) I love the daisies. :)



To be honest, I love history but tend to be hit and miss with it. This year we're using Diana Waring's History Alive (published by Answers in Genesis). While I love it, I sometimes have a hard time putting it into motion. That being said, we finished the unit on the Medes and Persians and I took a few photos of their end of the unit projects. (They were so much fun to watch!)

L researched and told us about Purim - the history of it and how and when it's celebrated now. Lots of fun to hear the details. It's something she suggested we try to celebrate one year. :)


One of the things I love about this curriculum is the variety of project ideas so that each student can do something along their bend. K's bend is recently most decidedly toward drama and writing. So we were treated to a wonderful humorous skit about Haman having to honor Mordecai. (I really wish I'd gotten it on video, but someone's hair wasn't quite photo/video ready.) :)



This is Haman talking with the king.

Haman and Mordecai.

J treated us to a story of a lamb on his way from Babylon back to Jerusalem during the repatriation period. The name of the story (thank you Diana Waring - love her humor) is Baa- Hum-Bug. :)

Don't you just see the shyness in these "unsocialized" homeschool kids. ;)

I absolutely loved this one. R decided to make a replica (so to speak) of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream - Daniel 2. She explained it to us and told us what each part represented. Take note of the gold head (Babylon), chest & arms of silver (Persia), middle and thighs of bronze (Greece), legs of iron (Romans), and feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

Here's the "stone that struck the image". :) (Dan. 2:35 - Jesus)

To be honest we don't have these great projects going on everyday, but they're great fun when we do. Thought you might enjoy. :)

Other than this, we've had life going along at a quick pace. We've been blessed to enjoy having friends stay with us while their parents are out of country working on an adoption. (These girls are so sweet; it's always a joy to have them with us.) We're also gearing up for a speech and debate tournament next week. (We participate in speech only.) This all makes for time flying past quickly.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Whose Hands Is It In?

Spending time in Luke 9 yesterday, God gave me another obvious, yet aha moment (at least for me). In Luke 9:12 - 17 we read of Jesus feeding the 5,000. The disciples were thinking about the obvious - the day was ending, the crowd was huge, didn't it make sense to send them away so they can get some food and lodging? Jesus told the disciples to give the crowd something to eat. Of course, the disciples pointed out that they didn't have enough food the meet the needs of the crowd - all they had was "no more than five loaves and two fish - unless we are to go and buy food for all these people." (vs. 13) (Can't you just identify with the realistic problem solving objections they throw at Jesus telling Him why they can't possibly do what He's told them to do. I know I can.) Jesus, of course, tells them to have the crowd sit in groups of about 50. Jesus then broke the loaves & gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied and 12 baskets of broken pieces were picked up afterward.

How often I look at a situation in life that Jesus has brought me to and am tempted to think "I can't do this!" The thing is - it's true. Often I CAN'T do whatever the situation requires. (5 loaves and 2 fish can't feed 5,000 people.) However, that's speaking of things in human hands. Those loaves and fish couldn't feed that many people until they placed them in Jesus' hands. Likewise, often I can't do things in my own hands, on my own, in my own strength. However, if I place (whatever it is) in Jesus' hands - He CAN do it!

It's a matter of WHOSE hands is it in.

Children's Bible Game Site

I have been meaning for months to share with you a website that has Bible related games for your little ones. My youngest checked it out and thought it was fun. The website was developed by a friend of a friend of mine. Hope it blesses you and your little ones.

ipad giveaway

I don't actually own an ipad, but I think they look great and would love to one day own one.

I received an email from Old Schoolhouse Magazine today telling about a company that has links to educational apps that look really neat. (One sounds like you hold the ipad up to the sky and it tell you where the constellations are for your area. Wow! Pretty cool!) This company is having a drawing for an ipad on Feb. 1st. If you're interested, check out their website .

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I wanted to share with you on of my favorite quick, easy, and yummy meals!

This one is so easy, it literally just takes a few minutes to throw it in the crockpot in the morning and it's ready at suppertime. I love that!!!

(I forgot to take a picture of it. You'll have to use your imagination.) :)



Chicken Tortilla Soup

- uncooked boneless skinless chicken breast (the recipe calls for 4, but I normally put in 2 and I put them in still frozen)

- 2 15 oz. cans of black beans, undrained

- 2 15 oz. cans of mexican stewed tomatoes (like Rotel)

- 1 c. salsa

- 4 oz. can of chopped green chilies, undrained

-14 1/2 oz. can tomato sauce

(-if I have leftover corn, I throw it in)



Mix all this together in crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. When it's done, take out chicken breast and cut into bite sized pieces.

To serve, put a handful of tortilla chips in a bowl, ladle soup over the chips, and top with cheese and sour cream (as desired).



There is one person in this house who doesn't care for this soup; she just eats salad the night we have this. Other than that everyone loves this soup and it is one leftover that goes quickly. (As my 3rd daughter tells me, this is one leftover that's just as good leftover as it is the first night.)



Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Learning From/With Peter

I love how God will show us something in His Word that we’ve missed before. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful teacher!!!! (understatement) :)

This morning as I was reading Luke 5:1-11, He showed me something I’ve never really noticed before, but it’s something I truly desire to live!

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
(Luke 5:1-11 ESV)

There’s a sequence to Peter’s relationship with Jesus. In the beginning, He recognizes Jesus as Master and obeys Him even when it doesn’t make sense. Through this obedience, He is blessed in a way that is completely out of the realm of what is to be expected humanly speaking and Jesus (God the Son) is glorified. Peter recognizes that Jesus is God (not only Master) and he sees his own sinfulness in contrast. It drives Peter to his knees asking Jesus to depart because he knows he’s not worthy to even be in Jesus’ presence. Jesus’ response is to tell Peter to not be afraid, from that point on Peter would be catching men. (A career change that will shift the major focus from providing for himself and his family in the present to following what Jesus was calling him to do –Peter and his family’s physical needs were met, but the focus was on Jesus.) Peter’s response to this is to leave EVERYTHING and FOLLOW Jesus.

I wonder how often I’m tempted to recognize Jesus as Master and partially obey but stop there. How much will I be missing if I do that! My desire is to obey Him completely in faith, even when it looks crazy to the world. (Imagine what Peter would have missed had he only let Jesus use his boat, but not gone out to fish again.) I long to see Jesus as He is, to recognize He is God, to understand my own sinfulness and to radically abandon everything in my pursuit of Him. I know that He’s called me to be a wife and mother and to homeschool my children. Radical abandonment doesn’t mean leaving this. In fact, it means living this out completely for His glory with my focus on Him, serving and loving others following His example. It means dying to myself, my desires, what would be pleasing to me now (self focus), in order to live completely and totally for Him. The phrase He gave me last year totally applies – whose life is it anyway? (Not mine anymore, I gave it away. My desire is for it to be totally His.) I know that none of us can live this completely this side of heaven. (Peter didn't either; I love him because I can identify with his humanness and failings, yet his love for Christ.)

So that’s my desire for the new year, to live a life radically abandoned to Jesus. Following Him and living for Him. This life here, today, is just the beginning, a dim picture of what will go on forever – eternity. May we have an eternal focus and live for Him. (What a life of joy and peace that passes all understanding! Not a life void of trouble; He’s told us that in this world we will have trouble, but a life of His joy and His peace. A life lived for Him!)

Happy New Year!