New Blog...Aren't you excited?!?!

So this is going to be my weekly sermon summary...
This week's sermon was from Joshua 24:15
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"

He spoke mostly to the parents in the audience who are trying to raise their children in the church. He talked on how we need to be responsible to God in order to produce Godly children. What our children are being taught in all other aspects of their daily life is that there is no absolutes...that God's "law" has been replaced by God's "Love". He said we have replaced being respected by our children for be liked by them. We are not friends we are parents. With being a parent comes friendship. Not the other way around

Ephesians 6:1 says:
1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."[a] 4Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Don't give up on your children just because they reach that magical age of 18. We need to continue to teach for as long as we are living.

He said that even the Old Testament laws were upheld even in the New Testament in the book of Matthew 5.

The Fulfillment of the Law
17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Teaching like these nullify God's expectations of what we are to be like as Christians. TEACH your children as it is said,

Deuteronomy 4:9-10

9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 10 Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children."

Deuteronomy 6:6-7
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

If we fail to teach our children the word of God the following will result

1. Darkness in their soul
2. Lessened understanding of God's perspective
3. Human standards replace divine standards
4. The will spend their life in a frantic and frustrated search for happiness
5. They will devise their own system for pleasing God, more alienated from the Bible

So that is the summary...or what I gathered from it. I really enjoy the way he puts things and backs everything with scripture. It is like these last few years for me have been "light bulb" moments when it comes to church, I am finally getting it. So I guess what I was thinking after this sermon was, if we question the right or wrong in something that we are teaching them, first we need to search out the answer in the bible, pray about it and if still unsure of the answer...stick with the side of caution. I don't want to be a stumbling block for my children or their children. I want to be able to show them what is right and wrong and not teach them what is the just OK stuff because that can be where they will stray. The gray area is what makes so many of us stray and wonder...if it is OK for some and not OK for all, so who is right? Teach them to have an open mind to the things that others believe but to KNOW what they believe so that they can be an example to those who are not sure on their beliefs. (Does that make sense?)
I guess I better stop because I am afraid that I am not getting my point across and the more I talk sometimes the more confused people seem to get. Shhh....I tell myself.

One more thing...The song "Your grace still amazes me" has been added back for you Angie.

Memories

Hi...the pictures I had up here was messing up my page so I have taken them down...I will post them on an older blog later...Check back for location.

Bad week...

So my week or weekend was the pits to say the least. I have cried so much that the tears won't even fall anymore. I don't know what I thought it would be like to lose a parent but I didn't expect it to be this hard. I feel nothing right now...numb most people would say. I am not sure how long it will last. This whole thing has opened my eyes to what death can do to a family. I would like to say it brings everyone closer but I am beginning to wonder if the different greiving processes didn't almost destroy us. It is hard to figure out what to do right after someone passes away. I wanted to pick the things out that I thought my dad would have wanted but I didn't know what he wanted and is it really worth fighting when we all needed to pull together to help each other. I wanted to focus on the here and now and others wanted to look into the future. I don't know how to compromise my process with someone else's. For me it was too hard to sit in his house and see all of his stuff just sitting as if he had just been plucked from the room. I wanted to spend all the time I could with my kids so their life wouldn't be disrupted and they wouldn't feel as if I wasn't absent from their lives. I just wanted to do my greiving my way...no one telling me how. I spent my Sunday morning at church as always because it brought me peace and I sang in the choir so that I could "thank" God for his mercy and grace. For me that was important. I sat through a sermon that I would have been upset to have known I missed. It was a good release for me. And so here is my sermon summary...

PRAY BIG...Pray for something this year and from now on that ONLY God could give you.
Pray big so that God knows that you understand how mighty he is. Don't give up. Don't expect the answer tomorrow or a week from now. Be presistant. Don't let the "wrong" answer to your prayer make you stop praying for the "right" answer. (wrong for you, right for you). If someone had stopped praying for me, I would not be in church but they never gave up. It was in God's time, not theirs. It is Ok to pray for your dinner and to say your nightly thank you prayer to God but don't let those be what you consider your prayer life. Pick something that you are passionate about and pray until you get the answer...

So that is a quick summary... I would type more but I can't get all of my words to filter out of my brain right now.

One more thing...I want to personally thank Mark for all of his visits to see my dad and for doing an awesome job at the graveside service. I don't think any of us will know the impact that you had on him. Thanks again.

It is finished...

The battle is over...January 11, 2007 at 9:20 am, my father passed away. He went very peacefully, thank God. I want to thank everyone for all of their thoughts and prayers. He leaves behind his wife Loretta, his sons, John, Tom and Justin and me, his daughter. He will be missed for years to come by his grandchildren, Kaitlyn, Samuel, Joshua, Tyler and Lauren (his unborn grandchild). This has been a very rough day for all of us. Please continue to pray for all of us during this time.



God saw you getting tired
and a cure was not to be,
so he put his arms around you,
and whispered "Come to me".
With tearful eyes we watched you,
and saw you pass away.
Although we loved you dearly,
we could not make you stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
hard working hands at rest,
God broke our hearts to prove to us
He only takes the best.

Sermon Notes...

So I haven't written about the sermon lately...mostly because we haven't been to church. Since we have been back from vacation at Thanksgiving we have been to church, I think twice because of sickness and holiday celebrations. So this Sunday I was ready for a good sermon and I was not let down. The pastor spoke on making vows/resolutions and keeping them. He shared his vows for the new year...

1. Pay his Tithe
2. Go to Church
3. Be a holiness pastor
4. Keep all his committments
5. Stand "with" God

First he said we should all be tithing but he makes a vow to continue to tithe as he has for years. No surpise I am sure for all of you out there but he explains it better than anyone. It is not about giving what you have to the church but to God, who has given you so much.

Malachi 3:10
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

His second vow was to come to church no matter where he was at. Whether on vacation, whether it was really nice out and he could be golfing, whether he had the sniffles or was tired. He said that unless he was traveling on Sunday, he would be there and if he couldn't be there he would take time to worship that day. He encouraged all of us to be there no matter what so that we can let God know how much we love and respect him. This was one for me since I was tempted to skip because I was so tired. Glad I made myself go...

Psalm 95:1-7a

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

The third vow...to preach holiness. Holiness because we are a holiness church. No apologizing for preaching what the bible clearly states us all to be...Holy. Living as if we are the body of Christ. Living on the edge of holiness is not going to get you there.

Leviticus 19:2

"Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.'

His fourth vow...to keep committments. He talked to anyone who has volunteered for things in the church such as becoming a member of the choir or helping with the children downstairs, if you say you will help then help. No backing out or not showing up...I will raise my hand to not fullfilling all of my committments, but I am right there with him on making sure I am following through.

His fifth vow and the one vow that he is the most passionate about is standing with God. He spoke of how this generation is not committed to their marriages. He also spoke about how the churches are not mourning over those divorces as they used to. He said that the vow before God is so sacred. And that he is going to stand by what God says about marriage...(this one is a bit longer).

1 Corinthians 7

Marriage

1Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry.^[a] 2But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4The 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. 5Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 8Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. 9But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. 10To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. 12To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 16How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? 17Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.

I know that was a bit long but it was so worth sharing. We all need to make new committments and vows to ourselves...
Here is some of mine for this year and years to come...

1. Spend more time laughing with the kids and less time yelling at them for "spilled milk"
2. Spend more time with my extended family...schedule game night (thanks Jones' for the idea)
3. Spend time appreciating the wonderful husband I have and less time worrying about what is not getting done.
4. Work on being patient (Please...I don't need any prayers on my behalf for this, if you know what I mean)
5. Most importantly...work on my relationship with God and scheduling time with him so I don't lose my way again.

This year's resolution...

I want this year to be a year of kept promises and living for today and not tomorrow. If you have been reading my blogs over this last year you know that my tomorrows are becoming less important than what is happening "today". The pastor this past week talked about making more time for the things that are important to us. If we try to cram in everything that the doctor's say we need, sleep, exercise, meditation, eating right, plus working and doing all of the thing that an average person needs to get done...we would need 36 hours a day to get it all done. What the experts leave out is our time with God. What we all sometimes leave out is our time with God. I know that this year I have been leaning on God more than ever but not giving him my time like I should. Letting him have complete control...boy is that a hard one. As I reflect on my year...it has been my most insightful year spiritually but one of my toughest physically and emotionally. What is amazing is I feel good about my year. I feel calm and happier than I ever have been. While I still have a tough road ahead with my dad and worrying about Joshua and Samuel...I really don't feel the stress that I would have felt had I not had this wonderful year with Christ. I am looking forward to spending the "time" with God this year. I am sure he has some wonderful things to show me.
I am going to post a few pictures of the kids at Christmas...and the beautiful tree is my mom's. She did such a wonderful job and we all had a great time at her house on Christmas Eve...even with the little fire we had. (Don't Ask).