Geovanna

We just became the proud new sponsors of a little 8 mo old girl in Nicaragua named Geovanna. We have a picture of her sweet little face and pray for her and her family many times daily. Prayerfully ask God if he is leading you to sacrificially do the same. World Vision

"He answered them, 'Whoever has two shirts should share with the person who doesn't have any. Whoever has food should share it too.'" Luke 3:11

Rob's Blog

I mean, THAT's what I meant to do. LOL!

that's what I meant to do.

Book review

This is a link to Rob's blog. He just posted a review of the book "Church Planter" (i think thats the name). A new book by Darrin Patrick. Sounds great...well written review. :D

http://robertcblake.blogspot.com/

There are times that God will move you to tears with joy. There are times He will test your faith and move you to tears of pain, fear, frustration. It can be hard to see God in our times of trial. We are going through a great trial now. I have cried more in two weeks than I have in 6 months. I have cried out to God more in two weeks than probably ever. There are so many songs with poignant lyrics that speak exactly what my heart is screaming. There are Psalms that do the same.

I'm tired of the trial. I feel that God has left us hanging. I know this isn't true....it's just a feeling and the Bible says feelings (emotions) are deceptive. I really want to scream. My entire body and soul and mind has been clenched for two weeks. Have you ever felt that you were walking a very fine line between keeping it together and totally losing it? Have you been through a time where it seems you are the only person you know whose life is just....messed up??? Through nothing you've done...you're suffering. I guess this is some of what is meant by sharing in Christ's suffering...going through pain that you didn't put into motion.

We wait and wait for His answer. We seek His face. We deny ourselves food. We cry. pray. read. study. cry. Why isn't He answering?? What are we missing? His timing is perfect. We should rest in His arms, His all-knowing, loving, strong, unfailing arms. It's not easy. Sometimes when you get hurt enough you become so tender...everything hurts. Loving touches hurt. Any word hurts that is not softly spoken. I cannot even imagine Christ on the cross and His pain.

My breath is labored. My heart hurts and cries for relief. My soul seeks respite.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills--
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip--
he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you---
The Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm--
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Psalm 121

a new bible study

So this morning I finished my second "Coffee Cup" series Bible study and started a new study. This one is called "Victoriously Frazzled" by Cindi Wood and the title caught my attention quite some time ago and I am just now getting around to doing it. I was hoping to do it as a group study w/ladies from church, but they're just not there. Anyway, it's going to be a great study even though I'm doing it alone and it would be awesome to be able to discuss it every week. I guess anyone reading this blog will become my discussion group! :)
My thought from it this morning was this: I need to be still.
That is the basis of today's study and she's right! I need to be still. There are times when God wants and expects us to get up off our lazy over-fed, well padded, comfortably seated butts and do something. Then there are times when we are supposed to merely be still and know He is God. That God is on His throne and all things work to His purposes and He works those purposes for our good. Now don't misunderstand...that certainly does NOT mean that all things will be wonderful and happy and sunshiny for Christians. Sometimes "our good" is discipline, want, pain, suffering....things that bring growth...spiritual growth in particular. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking that God is gonna coddle us like spoiled little Pomeranians living in L.A. shopping on Rodeo Drive with Daddy's credit card. The Bible never promises that. It does promise that God is King, He loves us, and if we are His people He will give us what we need. He will also make us want what HE wants. "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 He will make the desires of OUR hearts, match the desires of His. Anyway, I find myself often struggling with what's going on in my life as far as kids, husband, housework, money....all that. There's always something. But I struggle with it like I'm the one who needs to fix it. What makes me think I can??? Why on earth would I even think I'm able? I'm not. HE is though. God can and will fix it all...for MY good. Whatever that is...He knows. There are times we need to lean back and rest in Him and let God fight our battles (he can, better than we can), provide peace (HIS peace), take care javascript:void(0)of our situations, watch over our families, make things happen, provide HIS strength (ours will fail), take care of our worries (Bible says not to do that any way), and resolve our problems. He knows the answers, He sees the big picture of time past-present-future that our little human brains cannot. He knows what is good and right and what we need now. I'm gonna be still and listen and KNOW HE is GOD! :)

The Faithful a book by Jonathan Weyer

The Faithful is what I would call a "must read" if you have any affection what-so-ever for the supernatural, being all chill-bumpy and jumpy even in the daylight, and murder mysteries. This book will give you all that and more. Weyer gives his characters depth, makes them very believable and makes you want to know them better. From cover to cover I was intrigued and had a lot of trouble putting the book down to attend to my duties as wife, mother and home-school teacher.

By halfway through the book I was useless until it was done. I could not read it in a room alone...and I couldn't put it down! I've heard it belongs in the category of Christian Horror and I think that covers it well. The Faithful will not only have you jumping at every sound but it will challenge you to consider that things are not always as they seem. I enjoyed this book more than most fiction I've read in the past year or two and would liken Weyer's style to "a funnier Stephen King".

Definitely hunt it down and buy it...you will not regret it!

Organic Church

Cool title for a book, isn't it? I'm reading it now, and no, it's not about the "green" movement in churches. It's about churches growing. It's about church being about what it's SUPPOSED to be about...people...loving people, being Christ in the world. A church multiplication movement, not a "how big can we make this group of people" movement. It's about small clusters of people telling people about Jesus, loving and serving each other and those people in society that get ignored...and telling THEM about Jesus....and then people in those little groups answering the call that God puts in their heart to start another small group of people that love each other and tell others about Jesus who tell others about Jesus who serve each other and love people they don't know who don't look like them or smell like them....and tell them about Jesus. It's an exponential church growth movement. Not just starting one church and focusing on "launch" and programs and music and speaker systems and what kind of chairs....blahblahblah. It's about growing a group of loving Christians who create other growing groups of Christians. Sound familiar? Maybe you heard it here:

"Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Jesus...in the book written by Mattew 28. 19-20.

"Surprised by Grace" a book by Tullian Tchividjian

BOOK REVIEW

The book "Surprised by Grace" was a surprise to me. It has the subtitle of "God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels"...I had no idea what it was about beyond that. As it turns out, it is one of the easiest to read, most profound, and most captivating commentaries (of sorts, anyway) that I have ever read and it deals with the book of Jonah. Being a seminary student, I do deal with academic-type commentaries on a regular basis. This is not one of those, not because it's not worthy, but because it is filled with life application that most do not include.
Be sure and begin with the preface titled "A Cure for Gospel Confusion", it's an awesome beginning that will change your perspective of how the gospel works. Tullian approaches and applies the fact that "the gospel" is not a one time event, but is necessary for all daily. Just read it, he says it better than I do.
The author then proceeds to interact with scripture. We learn all about the man Jonah. Where he started. Tullian immediately begins to apply this scripture to the reader's life and heart. He says, "His (Jonah's) runaway posture is our posture, every time we sin, whether in thought, word, or deed, whether it's something we consider big or something small, whether it's doing something we shouldn't or failing to do something we should" (page 33). Ouch! Right? Read it!
The author moves smoothly from section to section of scripture with logical chapter breaking points and it helps the reader swallow the book bit by bit. Tullian also does something entirely new and captivating to me. He talks about artwork (old and new) that deal with this particular biblical character. There are photos of these works contained in the book so the reader can see exactly what is meant and it really was enjoyable for me and helped bring home many of the emotions in the story. While dealing with the section about the storm at sea caused by Jonah's fleeing, Tullian deals well with God's response to Jonah's sin--as well as sin in all of our lives. He says, "...his response is more likely to be stormy and upsetting than quiet and subtle" (pg. 41). No kidding!
I felt that the insights offered by Tullian in this book were amazing. He points to the downward spiral that Jonah's life took from the moment he chose to flee God's will. You may think this spiral ended when the fish barfed him up on shore...not so. Read the book. I spent about a day and a half reading it because I could NOT put it down! The author applies every single mistake that Jonah makes, every single bad attitude to the reader's life--not in a condemning way, he just points out that we all have those little (and sometimes big) attitudes and problems as well. We get angry at God when He doesn't do what we want, when we want. We remember Him when we're in trouble (in the fish's belly, so to speak), we forget to repent even when we know we're wrong. Just like Jonah, some days we'd rather die than listen to God and do it His way.
This book is well worth the price and time spent. You will be surprised at all the small volume contains.

A Shameless Plug and other things

First the shameless plug. My husband wants some blog followers. Not that I have many, but if anyone reads this.... :) His blog is www.robertcblake.blogspot.com
He's going to be reviewing books for Crossways I think thats the name.

Second:
We started school today...our FIFTH first day of homeschooling. Hard to believe. Anyway, it was AWESOME! I'm not sure I've EVER used that word to describe a first day of school. But it WAS! Branche was compliant (never happens...he's 13), Roger was a busy body, but stayed in the general vicinity of his seat (which rarely happens...he's ADHD)and knew all the answers (that's not new), and Carter....my sweet sweet boy who is 9 years old and has what they refer to as "Austistic Spectrum Disorder" (they say, no, he's not autistic but insurance still won't cover him because the A word is in his diagnosis)...but Carter today did incredible. His handwriting has improved for lack of use???? How does that work??? I DON'T KNOW! But it did! He only ever writes under duress. Today, when it came to handwriting all of a sudden....he did great. Unbelievable! Then, we did science and the worksheets are always a struggle because there's writing! So, I usually just write. Today, I asked the question, they said the answer, I SPElled the answer and they BOTH WROTE IT! Beautifully!! woot! I was amazed. AND on top of that, Carter wrote "food" faster than I spelled it which means the phonics are kicking in! YAY! Just some praising going on here, that's all! It was amazing! Ok. 'nuff a that! Hope your school dayz went as well! :) Keep on prayin' for tomorrow!

I am just stealing a little time right now to say we made it home safe from our Colorado trip. Rob and I had a blast, met some really cool people and had a personal reminder from God that He both loves us and desires to protect us. I really don't have time to write today, but wanted to say "hey" to anyone who may read my blog and promise more later. I also plan on figuring out how to get pictures from my camera to my husband's computer so I can post pics from our trip. I am also excited, because I have a new book to read and to review on my blog and am supposed to have a second one on the way.....cannot wait for the second one....it's spoooooooooooky! :)

excited

The kids and I are on the brink of beginning our 5th year homeschooling. That is so hard for me to believe. For five years, we have spent hours together reading awesome stories, learning tons of stuff and enjoying getting to know each other. No, not every moment is comment worthy, and yes, there have been lots of moments we'd all just as soon forget. But ya know, every family has moments that are less than fabulous. Every family has those times they'd just as soon forget. Homeschooling doesn't change that...it just gives more opportunities for moments of all kinds! Anyway, I'm excited because BOX DAY is impending once again! Once again, I'll be starting two new cores and reading lots of books (some new to me, some not...ALL new to te kids!!). We have hard work ahead of us...two kids REALLY need to get serious about learning to read for themselves....one is gonna be starting pre-Algebra and I want to cry ;) but....this should be another interesting year. I would like to say as well, that as the years go by I become more and more enamored of our curriculum company. We have used Sonlight all these years. I've added other stuff in but Sonlight has been the backbone of our homeschooling years. They are the MOST awesome homeschool company on the market. Had we chosen any other curriculum to begin with we would have been up a creek the past two years. We have not had the upfront big chunk of money necessary to buy curriculum. Do you know what Sonlight does??? They have payment plans! Yahoo! That we can do! Last year we did the plan where you pay 1/4 down and then make 3 more payments. It was awesome. Now, these payments go on your debit/credit card. If we had enough space on our credit card to just pay we would've, but no....we were irresponsible w/that card a few yrs ago and are still paying it off. Anyway, what it allowed us to do, was to pay the right amount off to have space every 30 days! LOL! Well, two days ago(I think) we went on the Sonlight sight and I was making my "Wish Cart"...you know, everything I'd order if money was no issue....and went to see how much the 1/4 payments would be and discovered they had a 6 month payment plan. Even better. Can you believe there was not even a FEE for this service???? Unbelievable! It's like they CARE!!!! ha. They do. They care a lot. They give so much money away to awesome charity causes...it's incredible. Read about them. Anyway, it's awesome. (If you are interested, I think the six month plan is temporary only til this Monday...so hurry)...but man....I love that company. My coffee cup is empty so I must be done. Have a blessed day and let God's love show thru you and all you do! :)

Pickles and Produce

I've had a busy summer. I was given a 5 gallon bucket of pickling cukes, so I made 3 batches of pickles. I made sweet, dill spears, and bread & butter. They look good, but I like to let them sit (especiallly the dills) for a while before I eat any. I've already had friends from afar requesting jars of the sweet pickles. I was not sure how generous I was willing to be with my sweet pickles until....a second 5 gallon bucket of cukes showed up on my porch last night! Yay! The cucumber fairy! (I like that fairy better than the squash fairy that showed up daily for about a week! ;) ) haha. Anyway, I guess I'll be pickling again soon....well, it will have to be today or tomorrow...cukes don't like to sit long. I am considering making some "Red Hot Cinnamon" pickles. They are a sweet, red,cinnamon-y pickle that I discovered after moving here. In this area, they're just called "Red Pickle". ha. I got a recipe on-line....it looks like a pain....5 days!!! BUT, it may be worth it...these are some gooooooooood pickles!

I "put up" 300 ears of corn. Frozen. Hard work, also had to be done in one day....can't let corn sit. Pick it in the morning...frozen by bedtime. I'm excited today, because I'm going to pick "snaps"....I call them green beans... ;) Then, I will hopefully have enough to freeze a bunch so we can enjoy fresh-frozen snaps all winter!

I was also glad to hear that the butterbeans are starting to come in. I don't love shelling them, but I looooooove eating them! Last year we got about four 5 gal buckets of those, but with the drought this year, my hopes have been dashed. :(

Hope you all have a wonderful, productive day...think i'll go shake some kids out of bed so we can get on to the harvest! :D

Ever have something you want to share SO bad but can't??? I do...right now. And it's so exciting that I can hardly stand it. :D I SO want to share...but can't. I'll just say this, Life as a Christian is never boring if you desire God's will, seek His face and follow where He leads. My life is many things...some good, some not. It's busy, it's loud, it's frequently chaotic....(pick which category each of those things goes in on your own...for me, it depends on the day!) I experience joy, sadness, gain, loss (some good, some bad...bye bye 48 lbs!, top of the mountain and bottom of the valley. The best part is I don't have to do it alone. God is with me. Always. I just have to be the one to pay attention to find Him. He never leaves, but sometimes I do. I am an imperfect creation....suffering from sin. Unable to earn God's approval..wholly unworthy. But He loves me anyway. I am the prodigal. He loves me anyway. I see this played out in my life daily...not because bags of money show up on my porch...but sometimes bags of squash or corn do. Sometimes it's a half of a cow. He loves me! No matter that I throw tantrums on occasion like I'm a three yr. old. He forgives me. There is this thing called "santification". It's a process. I'm still in it. Some days, I wish my time away and long for my true home in heaven where I'll be done with the process. Some days I cry because our time here is just too short. It's ok. He's with me and He loves me. He drags me through if I seek Him. I read His word daily. He gives me encouragement, courage, comfort, direction, attention and guidance through His very own word.
As to the exciting stuff I can't share? I'll be able to one day and then you can celebrate with me. For now....just pray for Rob and me and pray that God continues guiding our feet, lifting us up and providing our every need.

Wishing for you His peace.

Rob's blog

This is my husband's blog. He's pretty cool. ;) Didnt know if maybe someone who accidently stops by my blog, might want to accidentally stop by his. http://robertcblake.blogspot.com/

A season of drought

Sometimes, God doesn't do what we want. Sometimes, we pray and pray and He doesn't seem to answer. Sometimes, we are supposed to be learning patience and perseverance. These times can be some of the driest, most barren in our lives and hard to endure. I am in one now.

Even King David had these times....

Hear my prayer, O Lord,
Listen to my cry for help;
be not deaf to my weeping.
For I dwell with you as an alien,
a stranger, as all my fathers were.
Look away from me, that I may rejoice again
before I depart and am no more. (Psalm 39: 12-13


He learned patience and perseverance...

I waited patiently for the Lord;
He turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the Lord.
Psalm 40: 1-3

I am waiting on the Lord.

Kick Me

Do I have one of those "kick me" signs on my back? Ever wake up and think, "Wow. This is gonna be a good day!" and then you leave your room. Well. That was my day. :) It was really fine for a while. Then drama strikes in the form of kids. Then the adults get involved. THen it just goes to poo. NOW, for no apparant reason, some jerk was offended by my last post. Really just the fact that my last post exists was enough to make this person mad. I figure they must've had the same day as me, but wanted to spread their own brand of craziness around the cyber-world and chose me to pick on. *sigh* I would've left his post and not deleted it, but I figured I'd go ahead and poke the bear and delete it. Ya'll have a nice day. Pray, k?

I'm finally posting again.

So, I've been thinking for a while about posting. You know, I need to post again. I could blog about that....that kinda thought. But, then life gets in the way and my brain stays cluttered with all the stuff floating around in there. I just read a blog by an old friend of mine and she was talking about how there are so many things you'd like to blog about, but have to censor because of the fact that "whoever" can read it. She used a cool metaphor about drippings and gravy....which I liked better than the lemons/lemonade one you always hear. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Just wanted to say....I like gravy. Of course, being on a terminal diet, gravy is a no-no. I have lost 38 lbs. now and still have a ways to go, but I AM excited about my loss so far. It's amazing how people react, though. As soon as you start losing noticeably, people get mad. Why? I don't know. Because they don't exercise self control and put down the cookie? I don't know. I have seen anger. Others are more subtle and just say, "Stop losing! You're gonna get too thin!!!!" I say, "You haven't seen me nekkid. You have no way of knowing if I'm too thin!!" Ha! Ok, I don't say that to them, I just think it! ;)

So, enough about diets. Dinner's cooking and I'm starving.

What's going on here? The usual. We're trying to wrap up kid's homeschool for the year, but we're terribly behind. Oh well.Cant help we didn't have money on time. It'll be ok. I'm gonna let the oldest just finish reading his readers this summer (he loves reading)...he's doing ok in history and can read some of that this summer as well. Big problem is Math. He hates it and not finishing on time will put him behind. Oh well. Good thing about homeschooling....We can find a way to make it up.
Good books we've read this year:

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Flame Over Tara by Madeline Polland
The Trojan War by Olivia Coolidge
The Ides of April by Mary Ray
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
THe Samurai's Tale by Erik Christian Haugaard

Trying to wind up MY school. Assuming I pass my current class, then I will have 3 more classes to finish my Master of Art in Religion (Church Ministries concentration). Rob is graduating w/that particular degree this Saturday. Lucky him. Course he's continuing on with his Master of Divinity...so he's not done. Current class, while enjoyable has a heavy workload. Some books I recommend from this class:

Unexpected Journey by Thom S. Rainer

Family to Family by Dr. Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee

Concentric Circles of Concern by W. Oscar Thompson

Radically Unchurched by Alvin Reid

Boy #3 is playing baseball in the Minor league this season. I don't love it, and he's one of the youngest, but he does, so there ya go. He bats lefty so he's been hit by at least 3 pitchers. He's a little ball-shy now, but he did get a hit last game, so I guess it'll work out. My beef with baseball is the schedule. Too many games scheduled at 7:30 pm that don't start til 8 and don't end before 10pm. Add on a drive home and quick bath and my 6 year old is up til 11. WAAAY too late, I don't care who you are! ha! Again, thank you God for making me home-school. at least the boy can sleep past 7. I have friends whose kids are falling asleep in class because of these late games. There has to be a better way.

Did you know, that if you have never been full-time in the ministry, there's a lot you don't know. Just sayin'. It's hard. You have all the normal family stuff, work your job, be that out of or in the home (yes, staying home with kids IS a job, keeping house IS a job, feeding a family 3 meals a day IS a job), THEN not only do people expect you there every time the doors open...in a small church, you are often the one running the program, doing child-care..setting up, cleaning up after...you name it. Yes, when you're in the ministry your kids are still kids. They still have homework, they still do extra-curricular activities and goodness gracious..they still behave like kids. I know. I sound like I'm on a rant, but I'm really not. Oh...did you know that God very rarely supernaturally imparts you with a devotion, lesson, sermon or otherwise makes preparation time less for us than anyone else? Shocking, isn't it!? :) Really. It's a neat life. Not "neat" as in not messy, because that's not true...but neat as in "cool". It's different. It's different "good" and different "worse". But you know, the Bible even says that if you are living your life for Christ (ALL Christians are called to that...not just ministry families) then it's not gonna be easy. We (Christians) are on a battle field. We are fighting people (sometimes) but more than that we're fighting spiritual battles. Sounds weird, right? But we are. Powers, principalities...heard those terms before in the Bible? Not just words, not just people. If you are not in the ministry, let one of your ministries be prayer. Prayer for your pastor and his family. They need it. That I can guarantee. AND I guarantee, they'll know when someone's praying.



"Based on the gifts they've received everyone should use it to serve others as good managers of the varied grace of God." 1 Peter 4:10

"Even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life--a ransom for many." Mark 10:45