Just Simply Amazing

Hello Everyone!

I am sorry that we have not posted in a while, but we had a good excuse. For those of you who don’t know (and again for those of you who do), we have sold our house and are temporarily living in a conference center in Oklahoma City. It has been quite an experience for all of us and God was the only thing that got us through the whole ordeal.

We have spent the last five weeks packing up our beautiful house, it was quite an accomplishment when we finally got it done. Since we have moved into a training center and not an actual house we have had to put most of our belongings into storage. We had a lot of last minute memories while packing and getting rid of all the junk we had accumulated over the seven years we had lived there. Here are a few of the fun pictures…

Even with all the fun we had a few tearful goodbyes…                      

The tearful goodbyes including saying ‘see you later’ to our wonderful friends back home. We miss everyone so much already, but what has kept us going strong (it will help you all too) is knowing that “all things work together for good for those who love the Lord”.  (Besides what else was e-mail or Skype invented for?…)

Yesterday, for my writing homework, I had to write a Definition Paragraph. We could pick any topic that we wanted; I wrote about friendship and what it means to me. Since we just said goodbye to you all I felt that it was fitting that I share what I wrote with all of you back home. Here goes.

A Most Loyal Gift

            To laugh, to cry, to love and share, to enjoy, to give, to miss and be missed; this is the meaning of friendship.  Friendship is learning how to talk through things and share feelings of joy and heartache so that one does not have to go through life alone and forgotten by the world.  Friendship is not hatred or envy, loathe or dislike; it is a gift from God and meant to be shared with others.  Like with two best friends, after developing a relationship, their lives are joined together with memories of good times and bad, joyous times and sad; and nothing can separate them, not misunderstanding, or hurt feelings—not even distance.  If you have a friend then you are very rich indeed; you have been given a great gift and nothing can replace a true friend.  So many words and emotions can describe friendship, so many cannot even hint, but the phrase that describes it the best is “a friend is a most loyal gift”.

 I am so blessed to have many loyal “gifts” back home. It has been very hard and sad for me and my family to leave you all like this and I know it has been hard on you all as well. Earlier, as I was reading “Do Hard Things”, there was a part I read that told about how a teenage girl, Eva, did someting hard and it described exactly how I felt. This is what I read, “[Eva] knew she wasn’t called to follow Jesus only when she’d get pats on the back for it; she was called to follow Him even when it hurt. And if she wasn’t willing to follow Him when it hurt, she wasn’t really willing to follow Him at all.”

Friends, if either you or me are not willing to leave our homes, our churchs, our comfort zones; if we aren’t willing to move to another state, or leave behind best friends, then we are not really willing to “follow Him at all”. We, all of us, have to trust that if God wants us all to be together then He will make it happen. God only wants the best for us and He wants to give us “the desires of our hearts”. When we let God direct our paths then we can be sure that we are going the right direction.

I and my family have been called to serve God here in OKC, where has God called you to serve? Is it in your family; doing laundry, dishes, or around-the-house chores? Is it at school, co-op, or volunteer opportunities? How many of you are following God by doing hard things? I’m not saying that everyone of you should move away to a different state just becuase it’s hard, but what I am saying is that you can be doing things where you are now. It is hard to let God be in control of what we do or where we go, but if we don’t trust Him to lead us now day-by-day, then how are we going to trust Him later with our whole lives? If I told all of you that we haven’t had any complications getting up here or that we never worried if we were making the right decision or not, then I would be lying. Excluding the worry and questions that were rushing through our minds, we had a bug infestation in the moving truck that we rented, we had to “bug bomb” and then wash all of the stuff coming up with us to OKC, then the trailer door was open and a lot of our clothes and what-not got rained on, then a trip that was supposed to take only four hours ended up taking twenty-three (that’s including the wonderful, relaxing stay at a hotel that night), and then we all had quite a big awakening when we were on the highway, looked in the rear-view mirror, and realized we were a bunch of homeless hobos (lol) with all of our stuff in a car, a van, and a UHAUL trailer, and when we finally got “home” we found out that bleach had spilled over the whole back end of the little trailer! As you see, we had just a few things happen on our way up, but those are great memories that we now have. We also have come across some awesome character building days. And like I said in the beginning, we wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

                               

Loads of laundry, dishes to be done, not enough time; house to be cleaned, mail to go through, not enough rest; to-do lists, kids to activities, not enough leisure; relationships to build, etc., etc.  Where does all of our time go?  We are in such an instant world of microwaves and text messages and “you got to have it now!”.   Where does God fit in?

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalms 46:10) This verse has been coming to me alot lately.  I wonder what the Lord is trying to teach me…..

First, what does it mean to “be still”?  The Hebrew dictionary tells me to hang limp, sink down, be feeble, to leave alone, abandon, withdraw… I am reading “Prayer: Does it Make any Difference?” by Philip Yancey.  In there, he says that the Latin imperative for “be still” is vacate.  We need to take a vacation on the control of our lives and rest in our Heavenly Father’s arms.  When we are still, things begin to come into focus.  We so often in our lives tell our God what we want and what to do with our lives.  When we are still we will let God be God and we will just be a sinful sinner as good as filthy rags.  We are to withdraw or abandon our feelings that we are in control and let God be in control.

Yancey says that “stillness prepares me for the second command: “know that I am God…”.” He is the One who has created the Heavens and earth. To let God be God, means we must sink down and get off our high horses and ask ourselves “Who is God?” and “Who am I?”

Are we taking time out of our busy schedules daily to quiet our hearts, to be still, before the Lord and to know that He is God trusting Him to lead, guide and direct our paths to honor and glorify Him in everything we do?

Being Still before the Lord,

Sandy

Hey Everyone! Today is a memorible day for me. I just got through with my first driving lesson! Finally, after six months of complications on getting my permit, I finally got behind the wheel and started going somewhere! (That’s excluding the riding lawnmower and our 4-wheeler). My Dad is my driving instructor and while I was driving he was constantly reminding  me of little things to watch out for and always telling me that it was OK if I wanted to slow down a bit. (Not that I was driving fast or anything, but…) He would also tell me when it was a good time to apply the brakes, the gas, turn on my blinker, always be looking out for things going on behind me, don’t slam or ride on the brakes, and never forget to put on your parking brake when parking.  

I drove around in the residential neighborhood behind our house and was confident in the fact that I knew my instructor wasn’t going to tell me to do something I couldn’t handle on the very first day. After quite a few successful runs around the block Dad had me turn into an empty cul-de-sac. After turning in a little ways and stopping he told me to put the car in reverse and back up. He said all I had to do was do the same thing I had just done to get into the cul-de-sac, except do it backwards. With one hand on the wheel I turned around to get a clear view of the street behind me and noticed that I couldn’t see very much of the road behind me at all. When I told him this he said, “You can do it. Just keeping looking out the back window and using your mirrors, you’ll do fine.” Do fine? Maybe I underestimated my instructor, was he really asking me to back up? Are you kidding! I couldn’t see hardly anything and he said I would do fine? “Go ahead and take it nice and slow.” was all he said after that. I kept telling myself over and over, “Nothing can go too wrong. Besides that’s why they invented brakes, to help stop cars from going the wrong direction to fast.”  As I slowly let off the brake and I maneuvered the car where I wanted it to go, I realized that it wasn’t that hard. I know, I should have trusted dad the whole time, but it’s hard when you have no idea where you’re going or what you’re doing.

When we got back to the house and I ran upstairs to post about this I started thinking about me trusting Dad and found out that there was a spiritual analogy that fit perfectly. Like my instructor, our Heavenly Instructor is also always giving us little reminders on what to watch out for. Instead of, “Brianna, just go the speed limit.” It would be something like, “Brianna, slow down in life and talk to me sometimes.”

Sometimes I find that my Heavenly Instructor will give me a test (like driving in reverse) and I have a hard time trusting in what He’s telling me to do. The hard part is not being able to see where He is telling me to go, but I know that if I just start going in the direction He wants me to go I’ll find that He is with me (in the passenger seat) the whole way. Telling me that I’m going to do ‘fine’ and ‘just take it nice and easy’ and the path will get clearer. And I also know that He will never give me something that is to hard for me to do.

The verse that goes perfectly along with this is Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, all He will make your paths straight.” 

To me, this verse means that I need to trust God when He tests me and tells me to do something where I can’t really see the road in front of me. And to ‘lean not on my own understanding’ I need to believe that everything He asks me to do is for a purpose, to help me to grow, and I don’t need to be wondering if I should put on my “brakes” and question whether God is asking me to do something sane or not. In everything I need to realize that He is with me, leading me, guiding me, helping me, instucting me, in everything and I will go forward on a straight path. I may not know why He is asking me to do something right at the time (like backing up), but I can rely on the fact that He is preparing me for somthing greater and that I will take what I learn in the test and use it sometime in the future (I know I will have to back up while driving sometime in my life).

Anyway, that’s what I got out of my first driving lesson and I hope you learned something to.

Walking by faith not by sight,

Brianna 

As I was finishing reading Jeremiah this morning, I came across this verse (50:34):

Yet their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name…

To redeem means to “buy back” or “set free from distress or harm”. As I pondered on the Redeemer who rescues Israel from the confines of exile is the same Redeemer who frees us from the confines of sin (Titus 2:13-14).

Lord, thank you for your Living Word that applies to us today just as much as it applied in Jeremiah and the Old Testament. Amen.

A friend emailed this valuable insight today and just had to share it with you.

God Smiles When We Trust
by Jon Walker

Imagine this scene: One day God comes to Noah and says, “I’m disappointed in human beings. In the entire world, no one but you thinks about me. But Noah, when I look at you, I start smiling. I’m pleased with your life, so I’m going to flood the world and start over with you and your family. I want you to build a giant ship that will save you and the animals.”

There were three problems that could have caused Noah to doubt:

• First, Noah had never seen rain because prior to the flood God irrigated the earth from the ground up (Genesis 2:5-6).
• Second, Noah lived hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean. Even if he could learn to build a ship, how would he get it to water?
• Third, there was the problem of rounding up all the animals and then caring for them.

But Noah didn’t complain or make excuses. He trusted God completely, and that made God smile.

Trusting God completely means having faith that God knows what is best for your life. You expect him to keep his promises, help you with problems, and do the impossible when necessary.

The Bible says, “He takes pleasure in those who honor him, in those who trust in his constant love” (Psalm 147:11 TEV).

It took Noah 120 years to build the ark. I imagine he faced many discouraging days. With no sign of rain year after year, he was probably criticized as a “crazy man who thinks God speaks to him.” I imagine Noah’s children were often embarrassed by the giant ship being built in their front yard.

Yet Noah kept on trusting God.

In what areas of your life do you need to trust God completely?

Trusting is an act of worship. Just as parents are pleased when children trust them, your faith makes God happy. The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV).

God has been at work in our family and transitioning our livlihood and teaching us to completely rely on him.  The daily struggle to place complete faith in God to go before us and prepare the way is a constant battle within us.  But the words “lean not on your own understanding” ring in my ear and God reminds us that He is in control.  All things in heaven and earth are His.  He has the ability to do great and wondrous (amazing) things. 

I thank God for making this real in our life, and He is doing it every day. 
God smiles when we trust…trust Him today!

Robert

Hello Everyone! Yesterday, (it was so cool!), I got to witness the power of an all-knowing God in something as simple as a heartfelt prayer. Let me explain…yesterday, right when I woke up I felt like I needed to pray for something or somebody, but I had no idea what to pray for. (Do you ever feel like that?) So, because I didn’t know what to pray for I asked God what He wanted me to pray for. (I knew He wasn’t just going to let me forget about it, so that’s why I decided to do something about it.) And this is the cool part, He didn’t answer me in a whispering voice in my heart and He didn’t even answer me right away, but I just felt like I should read my Bible, so I did.

I am trying to read through the whole entire Bible and yesterday the part I was supposed to read was 1 Timothy. As I opened my Bible to start my reading I again asked God to show me or tell me what I should pray for and these are the verses He showed to me. (Right there in 1 Timothy!)

1 Timothy 1:15 – “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst.”

• When I read this verse I knew that God was telling me to start my prayer by recognizing I was a sinner and realizing what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. So I prayed.

1 Timothy 2:1,2 – “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone-for kings (Presidents) and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

• I couldn’t believe it! God was telling me through His living Word what I needed to pray for! As for the next part in my prayer I knew I needed to pray for all those in authority and for the upcoming Presidential Elections. (I didn’t pray that Obama would lose, but I prayed that whatever God wanted to happen would happen and that everything would go according to His will.)

1 Timothy 2:8-10 – “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.”

• Now thirdly, I prayed for the men around the world to be the strong, spiritual leaders that families today need. To have a strong respect and fear for God and to be humble enough to know that without God they have nothing, even if they live in palaces and have millions of dollars.
• And as for the women, I asked that He would open our eyes to the immodesty of women today not only in the way we dress but in our actions as well. Now, ladies, the verse above is not implying that we should never fix our hair, wear jewelry, or wear anything more than five bucks. But it is saying that we don’t need to spend extensive time preparing our outside appearances. We should be caring about what we look like on the inside. (I am talking to my self as well, so don’t feel bad that you just bought a pimple concealer to cover up that horrible red spot right in the middle of your face.) If we are dirty and sick on the inside, in our heart, then no matter what we do to the outside it will still reflect our true selves, and our true beauty, that is who we are on the inside. 

 Please understand that I did not pray those prayers yesterday expecting to discover a changed world today that witnessed a revelution overnight. We are all still sinners. Obama is still in the running. Men still aren’t spiritually leading their families. And women are still trying to cover up their true identity by dressing immodestly. I only prayed that becuase I felt lead to and I know that the power of God is so high no one knows the measure and anything can happen through Him. You never know how God is going to answer a prayer, so be ready for anything.

If you feel God is leading you to do something, don’t hesitate! Follow your heart and your trust in Him. If you feel that you’re where you’re supposed to be, then bloom right where you’re planted. If you don’t know how to start you can pray the same prayers I prayed above, or you can ask God and He will show you what to do. Don’t be afraid to step away from the crowd, go against traffic, or stand up for your faith. Follow the spirit God gave to you when you accepted Him and you will be in His will at all times. Listen to His voice and obey. 

In Him, Brianna

Colossians 1:16-17

For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and things on earth,

visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;

all things were created by Him and for Him.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

“…and in Him all things hold together.” How many of you actually know of the living proof that confirms these verses, especially the last part? The living proof is something called Laminin. A man named Louie Giglio explains this better than I ever could so please watch this video and be amazed at how God has created all things.  

Laminin

Isn’t that so amazing!…just simply amazing!

-Brianna

Hello, Everyone. I have had a few complaints that I don’t blog often enough so…I’m going to try to fix that and not have any more disappointed readers. Anyway, right now I wanted to share with you a story of how both of my Dads conspired against me (they didn’t really, but you’ll understand in a minute). 

Well, I guess I’d better start from the beginning so you all will know what I’m talking about… just about every morning, right when we wake up, my whole family comes to the table where my biological father leads us in our family devotions. Now, on the evening before this one particular morning most of us had stayed up late watching movies and were very grumpy and extra tired when we got to the table to listen to Dad lead the devotions. And some of us (meaning me) all got a little (ok a lot) grumpier when Dad happily anounced the topic of conversation for the mornings Bible study. The topic of conversation was “getting up early to spend time with God”. 

Now if you read my profile page you read that I like to sleep in on Saturday mornings, well that is a particial lie. I like to sleep in every morning, but seeing as life doesn’t always permit that…I normally get up at the same time every other kid I know does.

So, now you can see why I didn’t like the idea of my Dad telling me that I should get up even earlier to spend time with my heavenly Father. I got a little defensive and with a totally rebelious heart I steely listened to the rest of the study. Dad dismissed us from the table and I went about trying to act as if nothing significant had been discussed that morning and I succeeded at forgetting the whole thing… until about three that afternoon. I tried to ignore it, I really did, but this little voice inside me spoke up and asked.

What are you willing to give up for Me, Brianna?

Give up for You? I’ll give You anything You want! Just don’t ask for my sleep in time.

Do you really love Me and care for Me?

What a silly question? I love You! It’s just hard sometimes…when I’m sleeping.

Your Dad was right. I want to talk with you all the time not just when it’s conveniant for you.

What?! Now you’re taking his side!

Don’t make excuses. I just want to know if I’m important enough for you to give up something very special and sacred to you.

I know I sounded lame and I know God doesn’t take sides, but that was how it went. Then I made the mistake of shutting out that loving and caring voice so that God had to grab my attention some other way. And He did.

 About eight that very same night I decided it was time to do my own personal Bible study (I had decided that this was a conveniant time). The Bible study I was doing (and still am doing) is “A Young Woman After God’s Own Heart” (Nice title, huh?). Well, I just happened to be reading the chapter on “A Heart That Loves God” and there just happened to be a couple of “lovely” verses in there that I know God planned on me reading that very night. These verses were…

Genesis 19:27 – “Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.” 

Psalm 5:3 – “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation.”

Mark 1:35 – “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.”

Oh boy! Now I knew I was in trouble and God really did want me to get up and spend some special time with Him. So, since that time I have really tried (and mostly succeeded) at getting up, reading my Bible, and praying early in the morning. I mean, how could I ignore it when God gave me so many signs and conformations that this is what I needed to be doing? I feel like God is preparing me for something great and He is seeing if I will “hear and obey” His voice. I hope my ear never goes deaf to either of my Dad’s voices.

I apologized to my Dad for being upset with him and he lovingly forgave me. (Which I am so glad for.) And now I can’t imagine how I am ever going to pay those two back for gaining up on me. I probably never will and now I’m glad that both of them care enough about me to set me straight whenever I stray off the beaten path.

Thank God for being your Dad and for sending an earthly Dad to take care of you. I thanked God for mine. Brianna  

Checkout the most recent page addition.  Addison’s page is now live.

Over the past several months, we have been overwhelmed to see God at work in meeting needs through his faithful and obedient children.  I realize that it is sometimes difficult for us as grown adults to view ourselves as children.  But who better to be a child of, than God himself. 

A few weeks ago some friends discovered that one of their children was going to need special medical tests performed.  With no money to cover the additional expenses, our friends were at a loss as to how they were going to cover the additional cost.  As they were prayerfully thinking about this dilemma and told a friend about what they needed, the same friend realized and stated that God had already provided the way.  Just the day before, their friend met a man of influence at a the Scottish Rite Hospital.  He stated that if you have a need for the help of the hospital, don’t hesitate to call.  She thought it very strange that this man she had just met, offered so much.   The fact is, God’s provision had been given even before the need was known.

A couple of weeks ago, a bi-vocational pastor friend of ours became aware of the need of an elderly lady.  She had some small bills to pay, but had no money to pay them.  Our pastor friend had no money to spare, especially since he was between jobs.  He and his wife agreed to help anyway with what they had and paid the small bills on behalf of the lady, as unto the Lord.  The elderly woman had nothing to offer except some gift cards that she had no use for.  She gave those to the pastor which met a need in their life with groceries amounting to over ten-fold what they had given.  God again used two faithful people to provide blessings among each other.  God is faithful with his promises.

Just last weekend, our family had a garage sale to lighten our load and to raise some needed cash.  It was now Sunday morning and the thought of the money we raised with the garage sale came to mind.  I was asking myself, if I should tithe on the money we made.  I reasoned with myself that this money was not from a job or my work, and that God had simply provided for our needs and there was no need to tithe the garage sale money.  After all, we had already tithed on the money years ago before we had even made the purchases in the first place.  It would be like tithing twice on the same money;  a little bit like double taxation.  As I reasoned back and forth with myself, I finally remembered that God wants us to give cheerfully and tithe on what God provides, as he provides.  With that, I decided that no matter how God provides, we are going to be faithful and tithe of our money and time, whether he provides through our work, His blessings through others, or garage sales.  What is so amazing is that that very Sunday, early in the afternoon, we received a call from some dear friends of ours that they were on there way over.  God blessed us through them to meet a vital need for our family that afternoon.  God is faithful to His promises and He blesses all of us daily.

How is your faithfulness?  Have you taken notice of how God has used you to bless others, or used others to bless you recently?  He is at work every day.  We must open our eyes to the wondrous works of God and we will be amazed at his work.

Robert