Another Good Movie

Well, I took my friend Meredith's advice and rented Miss Potter. It was Great! I did not know a lot about her life and was captivated by the love story. I will not spoil any of the movie, all I will say is go and rent it. Beatrix Potter was an interesting person and her life made a great story.

Love God With All Your Heart: Lesson Two

Here is the second lesson I wrote for our church's children's musical:

The Bible is full of verses that speak about God’s steadfast love for His people. Steadfast means that it is fixed, not moving, firmly established. He loves His people with a never failing, keep going, constant love that cannot be broken. That means that if you are His child then He will always love you no matter what! That is great news for His children, for those who stay faithful to Him until the end. Some verses that tell us this are: Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can take away God’s love for His children!

But we do not always have that same love for God. We often let things enter our hearts and love them more than we love Him. Those are called idols. Anything that we love more than God is an idol. It could be toys, money, friends, our house… anything. Those things by themselves are not bad, because God has given us all things. It is when we spend all of our time thinking about those things and loving those things more than God that they become an idol. God tells us many times that we should love Him first! One of the Ten Commandments tells us this. Exodus 20:3 says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” That means we are to love God with all your heart, not other things. He even tells us how to love Him. In Deuteronomy 6:5 God says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” And Jesus even tells us in the New Testament which commandment is the most important. In Mark 12:28-30 “And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”

So, we have to have a single minded heart. That means that we need to love God above all things. In His Word He tells us that, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”(Matthew 6:24) God is trying to warn us that we cannot love two things the same or we will end up hating one of them and loving the other. We need to serve Him only with our heart. This is for our good and His glory. He is trying to protect our hearts and keep them for Himself. It is easy to let our hearts wander away, but the way that leads us to God is very narrow. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” These verses tell us that many people will run after idols in their life and not love God above all, but the way that leads to God is very narrow. Only a few people will love Him and find the right way. The narrow way is hard, but it is worth it because we will have Jesus.

So we should listen to God and love Him above all things. We must give Him all of our heart so that we may be saved.

Future Scholar!

I know that he is only 9 months old, but I am pretty sure he is brilliant! He loves books, which I am sure is common among small babies. But if he turns out anything like his dad- he will be a brilliant book lover.

Books for $5

Desiring God is doing a great thing. They are having a book sale. Every book here will be $5 on June 27-28, Wednesday and Thursday next week. They say pass this on! So, enjoy looking for great books.

God's Word is the Truth! Lesson One

I recently wrote some lessons for the children's musical at my church and I thought I would share them. By God's grace they are full of truth, not just for children, but for all of us. The language is simple, but I think that we often try too hard to explain the truths of God. He is very complex and we will never fully comprehend Him, yet He can be explained for the simplest of minds to understand (all by the Spirit's power). So here is the first lesson and I will post more later. Enjoy!

Lesson 1:

God is Holy. (Lev. 11:45) He has never done anything wrong. He has never sinned! He is perfect. (Matthew 5:48) Because we know this about God, we know that He has never told a lie. He keeps all of His laws and commandments perfectly. So, all of the things that He says are true. From the beginning God spoke and created everything (Gen.1). He spoke and everything was made. God said, “Let there be light’” and there was. He spoke and made the sky, water, land, animals, plants, people…everything. We can see all of the beautiful things that God spoke into existence around us everyday. His words can be trusted. All of His promises, He has kept. From Adam and Eve until today, what God says He will do, He does. We can still trust His words today because God never changes His mind (Numbers 23:19). He never changes!

God spoke to His people through the prophets (Hebrews 1:1) and now He speaks to His people through His Word, the Bible. All of the Bible is true because it is the Word of God. God even tells us, in the Bible, that they are His words and that they are trustworthy. This means that they are worthy to be believed in. As it says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” That means that every word in the Bible comes from God and that it is good for God’s people. It helps us to teach each other, to correct our behavior, to train us in knowing God so that we can do all the good works that God has prepared for us to do. In 2 Peter 1:21, it says’ “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” This means that no man made up the Bible, but that God Himself helped the men that wrote the Bible through the Holy Spirit. God used them to write down His words. Men can make mistakes and do not always tell the truth, but God always does. “The sum of your word is truth,” or all of your words are true. (Psalm 119:160)

Summer Fun

Love You!

The funniest thing happened last night, well I thought it was so funny I about broke a rib laughing so hard! We decided to splurge, which we never do, and go to Dairy Queen. I have been wanting one of the new Blizzards- the Caramel Waffle Crisp one! Yummy!! By the way- it was soooo good.

So, my wonderful husband takes us there to get the great treat. He is just excited because I am wanting ice cream- the poor guy never gets it anymore! So we drive up and he orders the blizzard, the guy tells us the total (all the while Ezekiel is in the back of the car talking and playing, keep that in mind) and Glenn asks for some water too. The guy says, "the free water" and we say yes, so he repeats the total and Glenn says, "love you"! I hit his arm and said what??? His face turned all red, he was not even thinking about what he was saying. He told me that he was thinking about the baby because he was being so cute in the back of the car. But we laughed and laughed. I am not even sure if the guy taking our order even heard him, but it was too funny! Having a baby changes everything!

Which Action Hero Would You Be?

Which Action Hero Would You Be?

You scored as a William Wallace

The great Scottish warrior William Wallace led his people against their English oppressors in a campaign that won independence for Scotland and immortalized him in the hearts of his countrymen. With his warrior's heart, tactician's mind, and poet's soul, Wallace was a brilliant leader. He just wanted to live a simple life on his farm, but he gave it up to help his country in its time of need.

Indiana Jones 42%
William Wallace 42%
James Bond, Agent 007 33%

The Amazing Spider-Man 33%

Maximus 29%
Captain Jack Sparrow 29%

Neo, the "One" 25%
The Terminator 25%

El Zorro 21%
Lara Croft 21%

Batman, the Dark Knight 17%

I thought this was so funny. I do love Braveheart, but I had no idea that is the Action Hero I would be. Take the quiz Here to find out who you would be. Let me know!!

Shopping for Modest Clothing!

I was reading Girl Talk and they shared some sites to go to for those of you looking for modest clothing.

A Little Shopping
It’s summer, and the search is on for modest clothing. Here are three websites to assist you in your quest to be modestly minded:
Christa Taylor
Down East Basics
Shade Clothing

DISCLAIMER: We at girltalk are not personally acquainted with the owners of these sites. Nor do we presume to put some sort of “girltalk stamp of approval” on their product or company. We simply want to point you in the direction of more modest and attractive apparel options. Please use the same discretion and biblical criteria when shopping at these sites as anywhere else.

For more on modesty: check out our “Fashion and Following the Savior” series and the “Modesty Heart Check.”

Becoming Jane

We rented The Queen last night. It was a good movie. I am not sure how much of it was true, but the acting was good. That is all besides the point. One of the previews last night was for a new movie. I was very interested to see that they are making a movie about Jane Austen called Becoming Jane. It looked like it was going to be good. It will be interesting to see if her life was similar to that of her characters. The movie comes out August 2007. We will see if it is any good! I have not read much about Jane, but have read many of her works! I hope I am not disappointed.

New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation! I am so thankful that I am a new creation. But what has changed? What is a new creation supposed to look like?

My nature is different. I am no longer dead, but have been made alive with Christ. I once was dead in my sin (Ephesians 2: 1-3). I was without hope, without love, and without life. I was living out the passions of my flesh- doing what I wanted, all the while I was on the path of death and a child of wrath. But God changed all of that through Christ (Ephesians 2:4-10). He made me alive with Christ by His grace alone. There was nothing that I did to change myself. I did not want to change. Can something that is dead want to be made alive? No.

That is what the verses in 2 Corinthians say- all this was from God, through Christ. He was reconciling me to God. To reconcile means: to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent, to restore. God restored me. He is holy and perfect, therefore He cannot look upon sin. All I was was sin! But when I believed, Christ covered me with His blood, I received the Holy Spirit, and now God can look at me through Christ- for He is perfect. He no longer counts my sin or trespasses against me anymore. I am new, free, and alive! I have been given a new nature. There will be battles with the old flesh and the new Spirit that lives with in me. Galatians 5:16-24 says, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

Therefore, or because of all of this (because I have the Spirit and my life no longer wants to live in the flesh), I am an ambassador for Christ. I am an authorized messenger for God. I am to tell of who God is and what He has done, that others might believe and be reconciled to God too. Remembering that all of this is possible, because of Christ who knew no sin, but became sin on my behalf, so that in Him I might become the righteousness of God.

Praise be to God!

Beautiful

Which Heroine are you?

This is for all of you Jane Austen fans. I love her books and the movies are great too. So take the Jane Austen Heroines Quiz and see who you are. I am..

I was not surprised to find out this was who I am. For those of you who know me, see if you think this fits! "You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see. "

What the World Eats

Time Magazine did a photo gallery of what fifteen families across the world eat in one week. It was very interesting! It makes you think about what you eat. We have so much and there are those that have so very little.

Monday Moments

Everyone does Friday Photos, so I thought I would be different and do Monday Moments. I will be sharing pictures of things that I feel are worth seeing or that are special to me! So enjoy.

Bowling Update

I guess I should post an update on my bowling adventures. I am doing much better and trying to perfect my "game", but I still have a long way to go. My average right now is 101. I am completely amazed at that. I started out at 85, I think, so I have improved! I also beat my old high game and have a new high score of 159!! That is a mind blower to me. But last week when we bowled all of my games were 115 or better. The Lord never ceases to amaze me. He has blessed the time that I spend with my husband bowling and helped me to improve during the process. I did not want to bowl, but I went to spend time with Glenn doing something that He enjoyed and God has blessed that. We enjoy bowling together and Glenn is helping me to improve.

Microsoft unveils touchscreen table computer - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com

I am not a technology freak, nor do I know a lot about computers. But this is one of the coolest things I have seen. It is a table and a computer. Watch the video to see all the fascinating things this can do.

Microsoft unveils touchscreen table computer - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com

Our Citizenship

There are times that I get disheartened by what I see going on around me in the world, or even in my own life. But what great comfort the Word brings to me. Reminding me that I am not home yet and encouraging me to keep my eyes on Christ.

Philippians 3:17-19 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

I am just awaiting that glorious day when my Savior, Jesus Christ, returns to take me home. My lowly body will be transformed and made glorious just like His. I will be complete! But I am also reminded that He is in control of what is going on around me. All things are under subjection to Him, by His power.

Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Modesty

I found this great blog entry this morning and wanted to share it. It makes modesty look beautiful, just the way God intended it to be. So many girls think that they have to show off their body to get attention, but it is in keeping it a secret that draws the right kind of attention. It is in the power of allure.

The Allure of Sexual Modesty from The Purple Cellar by Lydia Brownback

Sexual purity in tandem with modesty is actually more appealing than blatant eroticism--a truth that young women today are skeptical about. Ponder these words from Daniel Heimbach:

What exactly is there in sexual purity [in a woman] that makes it magnetic? What about it is desirable? . . . She has the allure of unique value. She has the allure of someone valuable to be around. . . . She has the allure of someone possessing a great reputation. . . . She has the allure of dignity. . . . She impresses people, not because she is pushy, loud, or brash, but because everywhere she goes, people sense that she is special. Her quality is something others sense without needing to have it explained. What allures men, stirring them to love, romance, sacrifice, and commitment, is her character. This is the sort of woman who, when she is still single, men are drawn to, because her alluring purity says she is truly extraordinary. They desire a relationship with her. They want intimacy with her, including a physical relationship. But the power attracting them to her is not lust but longing for a partner who is exceptional, trustworthy, great to be with, successful, admired by others, and always impressive. Men treat her as special because she truly is special. . . . Modesty is how a woman tells men, "Exclusive intimacy with me is worth everything you have. It is worth lifelong commitment because it is worth your life, and to win me a man had better be extraordinary himself."Lust attracts fans at the cost of dignity and admiration. Modesty inspires fans to admire the performer, while lust reduces the performer to performance and focuses fans on themselves. . . . Sex within God's boundaries is powerfully attractive in a way that is lost once you take it out of bounds. Abiding joy, genuine satisfaction, exemplary honor, and pure allure are profoundly valuable, but they are not hard to understand. Follow God's rules and you will like the results. Obeying God is very worthwhile.

These are words not just for young women, however. They are words for all of us, whatever our stage of life.

True Sexual Morality: Recovering Biblical Standards for a Culture in Crisis, Daniel Heimbach (Crossway, 2004), 248-50.