Quote of the Day

From Believing God Bible study by Beth Moore. Week 9, Day 1, page 200.

     "The God to whom you commit yourself and everything that concerns you is huge.  He is the omnipotent Maker of heaven and earth. He is the One who sees.  He is the One who knows.  He is the One who acts on behalf of His children.  He is the Mighty Warrior.  He is the compassionate Father.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He is the coming King.  He is love.  He is light.  He is good.  He is right.  He is your soul's delight.  He is...whatever you need.  He alone is wise.  In Him alone life makes sense and apart from Him all is chaos.
      Each morning when you turn your face toward heaven, before you make your first petition, start confessing who He is.  Call Him by as many names and titles as He brings to mind and praise Him for His immutable attributes.  Say to your soul, "Behold and believe!"
     The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, David, John the Baptist, Mary of Magdala, Mary of Bethany, Peter, James, John, and Paul is your God.  The same yesterday, today, and forever.  A God so holy, powerful, and present that when He revealed Himself to Ezekiel in the Old Testament and John in the New, both dropped like dead men.  He is the magnificent One, full of splendor, beautiful beyond comprehension.  The I Am That I Am throughout every generation.  Whoever He was, He is.  Who He was to them, He is to you.  Start taking Him up on His Godness. When you have no idea what to believe Him for a given situation, just believe Him to be huge. 
     Come, holy God, and be Thyself."

Believing God

I'm seriously being challenged by Beth Moore's Bible Study: Believing God. What would God do if I truly believed? It's a sad way to live to ONLY say or think I believe and not "active present participle" believe. That means, living in FAITH, especially of what I cannot see. I have hurdles in my life right now I've been trying to jump over for a few years that suddenly are up close. I'm praying for a modern-day miracle to overcome them with God's help, for "Nothing is impossible with God."

The day before the last day of summer

Had to count down the hours until Sheridan's open house. then she cold-shoulders the principal, when he introduces himself. OH, I can't get over that Sheridan has a little shy streak. I take full responsibility for her choice tonight. I've treated her like the baby of the family one too many times. We're working on it.

We capped off a wonderful summer Bible study with wiffle ball and sno cones at the church! I love this group of kids. They have been so faithful to our study and to one another. They have text(ed) me when they're going to be late and come after work some nights. They have called to just talk and a couple have made really big decisions. I am so thankful for this time. Richard and I both looked forward to every Tuesday night.

Katie, the human scoreboard.

The very tough winning team.

5th inning stretch: sno cones!

The Unquenchable Worshipper

The Unquenchable Worshipper: Coming Back to the Heart of Worship

I can't tell you how much I loved reading this book. It was inspiring in a hundred different ways and it had nothing to do with how much I like to sing or serving in the church. It has everything to do with our hearts...constantly staying in a state of hunger for our Lord.

It ran perfectly with our Bible Study this week...danger #3 in growing up in a Christian home is loving the world. God gave me an annalogy to this whole issue and I shared that it's like going to Red Lobster and filling up on those biscuits and not being hungry for the real meal. They got that, and so did I. Poison is not necessarily the thing that is going to get us "church kids" it's "nibbling at the table of the world" and filling ourselves so we're not hungry for Him. I think you can see how far this analogy could go. It's a visual for me.

Matt Redman wonderfully describes a worshipper who is UNDONE, UNDIGNIFIED, UNPREDICATABLE, UNVEILED, UNSTOPPABLE, UNNOTICED, UNDIVIDED, UNSATISFIED AND UNENDING. Not just good alliteration but deep, rich words that describe the worshippers God has recorded in His word and those who are our heroes of the faith.

When I read this book I was convicted of my luke warm attitudes but I was also challenged to be characterized by these UN-words. If you want a good read...pick it up. It's a small book, can fit in your purse and it has life-changing capabilities.

Bible Study

I'm loving our teen Bible Study this summer. No frills, everyone packing their Bible, some form of sugar for a snack, and games. Really, when the kids were little I hoped when they were teens they would play games at our house with their friends and they do!


Week 2:

from the book GROWING UP CHRISTIAN, by Karl Graustein.

"The most significant danger church kids face is false assurance of salvation - assuming that we are saved even when we are not."

"The key for us is to carefully examine the thoughts and motives behind our words and actions."

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test? 2 Corinthians 13: 5-6

And of course, the game portion of the night: (or something that happened in between rounds of spoons)

Week 3:

"...a second danger church kids face: a lack of appreciation for the saving and forgiving grace of God."

"Our amazement of our Savior depends primarily on our understanding of the huge separation between us and God and the great work He accomplished on the cross to bridge this great divide. A key to passionately loving God is in knowing that we have been forgiven of many sins."

"Those who realize that they have been forgiven much, love much, and those who think they have been forgiven little, love little." (Luke 7:47)

And for the game portion of the night we taught them my favorite crazy fast card game nertz!

Things I love

Tuesday night I LOVED having teens in my house. We didn't promo the treats or the game time, but we just invited those we knew to a Summer Bible Study. God prompted those who came (with their Bibles!) and then they stayed to play.

This is a pic during a round of viscious UNO. They're doing the goofy teen thing here with the peace signs, not sure if I understand why they have to do that EVERY time I take a picture.




Who knows what God will do with our group? On Thursday night about 11:30PM I got a text from one who was reading the Bible and sent me a passage that was speaking to them. I'll take the all the silly signs for that text.