Just a Great Quote

The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing; but in our culture, we apply for a curse and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture."
~ Doug Phillips

The Great Tragedy of Our Day

The great tragedy of our day is that the Church has been swept up in the birth control ethic, with its selfish quest for convenience, comfort, and the self-deceiving vision of the individual’s control over his own destiny. The fact is that we have lost our love for children and our vision to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion over the earth. The results have been devastating.

In fact, many Christians are unaware that they are not only engaging in an unbiblical practice of preventing “blessings,” but that some of the very practices they embrace have abortifacient consequences. How sad to think that someday we will get to Heaven and learn of the untold millions of children that were inadvertently aborted by their Christian parents — all because of lack of faith and ignorance. “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” I have a simple thesis: Hollywood is not the primary problem in the battle for our families. Neither do Wall Street, nor Madison Avenue, have any more power over our households than that which we grant to them. The problem is not the media. The problem is not Planned Parenthood. The problem is not the “liberal elite.” The problem is us.

We are the problem. And judgment must begin with us. As long as we continue to abort our babies, or cut off our seed, or abandon our children to the world, we can never expect blessing and joy within our households, let alone our culture. As long as we view children as a burden, we will not experience the victory of multi-generational faithfulness. Judgment begins first in the House of God. That means us. We must actively seek to bring forth legions of children for the glory of God. We must be willing to bless future mothers with the very words given to Rebekah: “May you be the mother of thousands of millions, and may your seed possess the gate.”
- Douglas W. Phillips

Health & Wealth

Health and wealth gospel dishonors Christ, since any gospel that is more true in America than China is not the true gospel." - Randy Alcorn in The Treasure Principle

Sisterly Love

Micah's Imagination

Micah has definitely developed an imagination. We have all kinds of adventures in our home. Sometimes we chase tigers until we catch their tails. We see pink monsters. Stars in the grass at night. We pretend that we are other family members at the dinner table. Clay and I have been so amazed at her imagination. We try to encourage it by imagining with her, but we have found it to be so much harder than it was when we were children.

Today I managed to capture a couple of her "imagining moments."



First Micah put this blanket over my head and said, "Mommy is Mary." She then took the blanket and put it on her head and said, "I am Mary."




Micah loves playing in the sand. After a few minutes of being in the sand, she walked over to me and said, "Mommy, I drank milk!"

Gabriella is a Climber

She has been climbing for a while. But here are a few pictures to show you some of her climbing attempts.
She loves to climb on this bench and try and figure out how she can get out of the fence. I pray that it will be a long time until she figures it out.



Gabriella now loves to climb on top of her sisters bed, so she can play on the bed. She has successfully made it all the way on the bed once. In this picture she is screaming, "Stuck" which is what she now says anytime she is somewhere that she does not want to be.

But I must say - these are tame to some of her adventures. She climbs all the way up the slide. I have seen her try to climb the wall to look out the window. She now climbs onto the toilet. She climbs up all stools - regardless if her sister is on there or not.

I have to just pray for her safety and trust that God has her in His Hands because I am not always quick enough to catch her. Besides, if I did not just trust God with her - I think that all that worrying for her safety would have driven me to mental hospital by now.

"My Shirt Got Wet Last Week"

Today, Micah went out to play in her sandbox. I went outside to make sure that there was nothing in the yard that was going to harm her, and then came back in to do some dusting. After a few minutes, I looked up to see a completely nude little girl slowly making her way to the back door. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me her clothes got wet. So, I went to the sandbox to pick up her clothes and put them back on her because I knew she was going to continue to get her clothes wet while she played in the wet sandbox. When I picked up the shirt, I decided it was too wet - she apparently found a toy that had some water in it and spilled it all over her. So, I started to head inside to get her some dry clothes and she tells me, "My Shirt got wet last week."

Now, I must clue you in on that is how she expresses past tense. Previously, when she would say, "last week" it at least was something that happened several hours previously - not just two minutes before. But then later today, her past tense lingo changed once again. After Micah and Gabriella had their nap today, Micah told me "Gabriella poo pooed last year." What she was really telling me was that Gabriella had poo pooed after lunch. There had just been about four hours from the time Gabriella had a BM till Micah wanted to reflect upon it - so in her little world four hours is equivalent to last year and two minutes ago is equal to last week.

A Great Sermon

This was the best sermon that Clay and I have heard in a long time. Listen to it if you get a chance. The sermon is by Paul Washer.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/play.asp?ID=52906154239&sourceID=gcc

Concentric Circles of Witnessing?

You've probably heard of the concentric circles theory when it comes to witnessing to people. The theory comes from Acts 1:8 which says "...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

‘Jerusalem’ represents home, family and close friends, where you live and where you are well-known. ‘Judea’ represents your kind of people, people of your faith, culture, language and basic outlook on life. ‘Samaria’ represents cultural, racial and religious diversity. The ‘ends of the earth’ represents global or cross-cultural mission, going to areas that are geographically isolated, with different languages, cultures and religions to your own.

As I was reading this verse I really felt God telling me that there was something else to this verse; that Jesus wasn't telling the apostles His concentric circles theory for witnessing to the lost.

Who was in Jerusalem when Jesus told His disciples this?
Jesus and His disciples, as well as thousands of other devout Jews, were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. They came to worship God for delivering their fathers from Egypt.

What are the regions of Judea and Samaria?
Judea is the inheritance that was given to the descendants of Judah and Benjamin. Samaria is the inheritance given to the other 10 tribes of Israel. Samaria is also a large city built by King Omri of Israel. Multiple kings of Israel made the city of Samaria their home, effectively making it the capitol of Israel. Now you must remember that Judah and Israel are two separate "countries" at this point. They split after the reign of Solomon. Because Solomon worshiped other gods (1Kings 11:31-40) God created two countries, Judah to preserve the line of David on the throne and Israel, the rest.

The remotest part of the earth?
The remotest part of the earth represents everyone who is not of the physical descendants of Abraham, i.e. gentiles, barbarians, etc.

So what?
Reread Acts 1:8 with this historical context in mind.

"...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." - Acts 1:8 NASB

Did you notice that Judea and Samaria are not separated by a comma, but are treated as one. Go to Jerusalem then Judea and Samaria and after that go to even the remotest parts of the earth. Now read the following scripture:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." - Romans 1:16

Jesus did not lay out a plan for concentric circle witnessing, but a plan to witness to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles. This was very evident in Paul's ministry as he went from town to town, first going to the synagogue then preaching to the rest of the town. God has such a heart for the Jews because they are His chosen people.

So what's wrong with the concentric circle theory?
Too many times Christians have abused this verse and used it to not get out of their comfort zone. "I don't need to witness to people across the world because there's people in my neighborhood who aren't Christians." "I witness to people at my work by trying to do a good job, I'm not comfortable with going to the ghetto and actually telling people about Christ."

The following is an excerpt from a newsletter I received from the mission group Gospel for Asia.

"Hardwar is a holy city on the Ganges River, not far from the more famous city of Varanasi( or Benares). Hundreds of thousands of Hindus travel there every year from all over the world to bathe in the river's "holy" waters. Police estimate that 35 million people come to Hardwar's "Kumbh Mela" festival, which takes place for two weeks every 12 years. These millions believe that taking a ritual bath in the Ganges will wash away all their sins.

"One day while Brother Varghese, a native missionary, was walking through the packed throngs of people at the water's edge, he saw a young woman crying uncontrollably. She was beating her chest with her fists as she wailed in grief.

"With compassion, the native missionary knelt down and asked what was wrong.

"'The problems in my home are too many and my sins are heavy on my heart, so I offered the best I have to the goddess Ganges, my firstborn son,' she said.

"At that, Brother Varghese began telling her about Jesus, about how He loved her and her baby, and that through Him her sins could be forgiven.

"'I have never heard that before,' she replied through her tears. 'Why couldn't you have come 30 minutes earlier? If you had, my child would not have died.'"

This story breaks my heart. There are MILLIONS of people on the other side of the world DYING AND GOING TO HELL! EVERYONE in America has heard the name of Jesus. I'm not saying that we should not witness here in the U.S.

"In 2003, conservative and evangelical denominations gave 2.6 percent [of their income] (about three cents per dollar), with the liberals giving only 0.9 percent [of their income] (one cent). The combined average for overseas work is about two pennies per dollar...Where is the money going?...the numbers demonstrate an increased emphasis on internal operations over the broader mission of the church." - http://www.worldmag.com/articles/11176

If you can't or are not willing to go yourself then consider giving money to mission organizations such as Heart of God Ministries (www.hgm.org) or Gospel for Asia (www.gfa.org). If you can't afford to give any more money than you already are then get involved in your church and convince your local body to give more money to foreign missions. If you are not able to do that then please PRAY for the lost. They are dying, dying, dying.

Clay

Micah's Memory Verse

We have been working on helping Micah to memorize scripture. There are several parts of scriptures with the reference that she has learned through the songs that she learned at CBS. But for the last few months we have been working on teaching her Ephesians 6:1. She is very affectionate about it being her memory verse. I was very excited tonight when I asked her to tell me her memory verse and she immediately said, "Children, obey your parents..." she needed to repeat the rest after me - but it is exciting to see that she is starting to memorize scripture.

Pictures

We are going to put up a few pictures from the past few months of the girls. Sorry we've been so bad about sending them out before. But now maybe everyone who wants to see will get a chance to look.

Micah Turns Two


Daddy and Gabriella

Micah, Gabriella, and Mommie playing the piano

Say, CHEESE!

Humility

God has really been teaching me a lot lately. There will probably be many small posts explaining the many lessons that He has been teaching me. A lot of this started a few months ago when we were looking at Paul and his humility as we studied Acts during CBS (Community Bible Study). In Acts 20:19 Paul is saying farewell to the elders of the church in Ephesus. He is talking about how he served in Asia, and he says, "serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews." One of our questions in the Bible Study was to explain what Paul meant when he stated that he served the Lord with "great humility." So, I decided to look up the word humility. Humility = the quality or state of being humble. Humble = to destroy the power, independence, or prestige of self.

When I read the definition of that, it really hit me how I was so far from being humble. In fact, I realized that I was very selfish. I realized that I had been complaining, having self pity parties, and in my soul longing for "freedom." Freedom to go to the store and get everything on my shopping list before it was time for someone's nap or bed time. Freedom to go to the bathroom without someone either in the bathroom with me or pounding on the door screaming, "MaMa or Mommie." I wanted to have freedom to go to the store and buy something with out having to worry about whether it was in the budget or whether it was a wise purchase." I even wanted freedom to be involved in more church ministry - but felt negatively towards my kids because they prevented me from doing more ministry. My list could go on and on and on. But what I began to realize is that I was being extremely selfish. I kept saying that I should have the right to have time by myself and even a right to spend money on something that I just wanted to. The Lord started showing me what I was missing was the freedom I had during college, when I had more independence - before a husband and before kids. So, I needed to allow God to destroy the independence of self (or in my case the longing for that). God reconfirmed to me that my husband and children are a blessing from Him. They have been put in my life to help mold me into a more humble person - to help aide in the process of me becoming more like Christ.

Pray for me as I allow God to move me more and more towards humility.

Obedience

I've been reading through 2 Chronicles and the Lord has really been teaching me about obedience. Chapter after chapter, Kings and Chronicles give accounts of kings who seek after the Lord and are blessed by Him, while kings who forsake Him are destroyed.

2 Chronicles 16:9a really stuck out to me which says "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."

I whole heartedly know that by seeking the Lord I will not necessarily be blessed financially or with good health. This is VERY evident in the lives of such great men of faith as any of the apostles, Stephen, Charles Spurgeon, Hudson Taylor, thousands of missionaries who have gone to foreign countries giving their lives to God and surviving only by God's grace, and on and on. But I do know as Phillipians 4:6-7 says "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And James 4:7-8 "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts you double-minded."

This has been very evident in my own life. As I have sought the Lord He has allowed me to find Him, but when I stop He withdraws. I've been struggling for sometime trying to juggle a wife, kids, a job, church, and seeking the Lord. Shala and I have really been trying of late to rise early and seek the Lord and I can already feel Him drawing near to me and teaching me. It has been an incredible blessing and I ask for your prayers to have the strength and determination to persevere in this area.

Clay

Our princess

Micah loves princesses. She has two sets of princess pjs & a princess umbrella. If it is princess - she wants it. Micah tells us that she is our princess & likes to dress up as one. She loves to play in the closet in our room. Today, I had the bedroom door closed. She started pointing to the door saying, "Oh no, My princess closet."

True to being a princess - she does not like to get dirty. She is always ready to wash stuff off her hands. She especially does not like mud on her feet. If she gets mud on her feet, she will cry to come take a bath. Not at all like her sister.

Reading in a basket

Gabriella loves to read. She takes after her "MaMa" and her "Peepaw." She will spend 45 minutes pulling all the books out of the basket in her room or off the shelf in her sister's room. Then she will intently look at one book. When she is done looking at it, she throws it over her shoulder and then moves to the next book. It is not uncommon for her to come walking in to me with a book saying, "MaMa book!" When I sit down, she will squeal and then fall into my lap so we can read her chosen book.