Tuesday, December 05, 2006

The Christmas CD Has Arrived!

Well, here it is! Hot off the press!
The best Christmas CD ever!!!

I really mean it. The more I listen to it the more I really like it!
go to the church web site for ordering information and sound clips!!!
or just click the link on the sidebar!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Here Are Some Pictures From My New Camera


Action shots are a lot of fun!





Sarah's mischief shows up every now and then!








I think I like portrait style the best!






I loved all the reds in this!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

November Ladies Saturday Fellowship

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Psalm 30:4, 97:12 "Give thanks at the rememberance of His Holy Name."

1 Chronicles 16:34, 16:41, Psalm 106:1, 107:1, 118:1, 118:29, 136:1&2&3&26..."Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His mercy endures forever!"

1 Chronicles 16:8, Psalm 105:1 "Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!"

Psalm 75:1 "We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near."

Psalm 107:8,15,21 "Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!"

Psalm 56:12-13 "I am under vows to You, O God; I will present my thank offerings to You. For You have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life."

God has given us every reason to be thankful!

Monday, October 23, 2006

October's Saturday Ladies Fellowship

This month's topic was Worship.

John 4: 20 "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 "
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

The Samaritan Woman was concerned with the mechanics of worship…the where and how of it. Jesus gets straight to the point…Spirit & Truth. What does that mean?

Truth is easy. It means what you'd think it means: honesty, sincerity, reality.
Spirit on the other hand, what exactly does that mean? The Greek is pneuma means the rational soul, mental disposition, Christ's spirit, the Holy Spirit, mind.
American Heritage: The animating force within living beings; soul. The Holy Spirit. The part of a human associated with the mind, will ,and feelings. A mood or emotional state. Vivacity, vigor, or courage. Strong loyalty or dedication.

Spirit & Truth are internal issues, not external. The real you in all honesty without pretension. The outward expressions of worship must find their source in a heart overflowing with love for the Savior. Outward expressions of worship such as singing, lifting hands, bowing down, etc... are of no value to God unless they spring out of Spirit & Truth.

And the Father is seeking such to worship Him! Amazing!

But what if I don’t honestly feel like worshipping?
Heb 13: 15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

I believe that it is in those times that we can still offer a sacrifice of praise.

1 Cor 7: 4 The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.

The marriage relationship was intended by God to represent His relationship with the Church (His Bride). Just because you don’t feel love, does not change the fact that you are married. You are not your own…you belong to Him…do not deny Him the worship due His Name. Make a sacrifice of your feelings. Offer to Him your will.

When our feelings aren’t in line with what we know is true, we offer the sacrifice of praise…reminding ourselves of who He is. Feelings follow! (They are the caboose!)

Do we refuse to worship God when the cirsumstances aren't pleasing to us? Worship is not for us, it is for God! If you don't know or like the song that the leader has chosen, you can still worship. Look/listen to the words. Can you agree, as in prayer, with what the song is saying? Then worship! Tell Him that He is all that!

Trying to have a relationship with Jesus without worship is like saying you can have a healthy marriage without living together. A relationship with Jesus that doesn’t have an active worship life is to keep God at arm’s distance. He is not satisfied with that! He didn’t sacrifice His Son for that!

Why singing? Because it is scriptural! Occurs 116 times in 99 verses. We are told over and over to sing to Him. He must really like it! Is it the only form of worship? Of course not! But throughout the Bible that is the prescribed form of congregational worship. I asked Kevin why? He said he thinks it is a reminder to us of how we are one Bride/one voice/one body in Christ. (Eph 2:14 Jesus, Our Peace destroyed the dividing wall of separation).

Those who say things like, “I don’t really like the worship part of the church service.” don’t understand that this is a time for us, as the Body of Christ, to set everything else aside and boldly proclaim our love for our Savior. It is His Bride declaring her love and devotion. It should be held sacred because it is a very precious thing in God’s sight.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Homeschool Frontier Day





Carianne
tied for third place with her apple pie in the pie contest. Amy came in second with her strawberry pie.




Once a year the homeschool group gets together for a day of re-living the days of the Westward Expansion. This year we added a pie baking contest, archery, quilting, beading/leather working, and a sack race to the annual black-powder shooting, hock and knife throwing and, of course, feasting and felowshipping. The day ends with songs around the campfire with smores. The girls and I even did a little bit of made-up square dancing!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Kevin Turns....

Kevin celebrated his birthday with the guys from church. This is the men's event of the year for the Calvary Chapel guys! Thanks to all who came! They didn't even trash my house. We've got some great guys at this church!




Whatcha doing on that computer, Dennis? Could you be showing off those daughters of yours again? Check out their sites (Shannon & the Hills).

Monday, October 02, 2006

Carianne is 7!!!!!






Carianne celebrated her 7th birthday with a few friends and their families at Pizza Factory.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Soccer Girls



Soccer season is in full swing. Kevin and I are spending our Saturday mornings juggling our children between two different fields. That's Sarah (#12 in blue) and Amy (#4 in green). They both love playing. I'm counting the weeks to freedom. (By the way there are 6 weeks left!)

Monday, September 18, 2006

September's Saturday Women's Fellowship: Praise

Candace Johnson shared her testimony with us. She talked about the seed of God being planted in her heart at a Billy Graham crusade, but that it never grew because it was never watered or nurtured with solid Bible teaching.

Lara taught us a devotional on Praise, specifically praise to God for who He is. One of the Hebrew words for praise (ya-da) means to look up or offer up and also has the idea of shooting arrows up. By teaching us the meanings of a few of the names of God, all of which show His praiseworthy character, we used Psalm 116:1 to write our own Psalm of praise!

Jehovah/YHWH: The name too holy/sacred for the Jews to even utter! The Great I AM
Jehovah-Shalom: God of Peace. The Most Holy God reaching out to sinful man with the offer of Peace with Him.
Jehovah-Jireh: The God who provides. All our needs graciously provided for.
Jehovah-Tsidkenu: God, our righteousness. Because we fall short, He is our righteousness.
Jehovah-Nissi: God, our banner. Going before us in battle. Preparing the way for us!
Alpha-Omega: The beginning and the end. God sees the whole picture of life as if looking down upon a timeline or from an airplane looking at a parade. He is not surprised by anything, He sees it all!

So take some time and shoot off some arrow of praise to God, or write him a love note! If you start with "I love You, Lord because..." you'll fill a page up before you know it!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Kevin
&
Amy's

Texas

Road Trip


Kevin bought this truck on E-Bay! So he and Amy hopped on a plane to Texas to pick it up and drive it home.


Four days and 2100 miles later, they arrived safely at home.

Hope you enjoy seeing some of the sights they saw on the way! It was definately a trip full of Father/Daughter memories that will last a lifetime!

Amy took most of the pictures.