Chip It!

Wow, I'm so hit and miss on this blog! Oh well! I wanted to share with the few of you who may read this a really neat tool that I learned about from this amazing blogger. Let me back up a second. I love to look at ideas for decorating. I don't live in my own house currently so I can't paint and decorate like I would like to, but I am getting lots of ideas now! A while back I had several jars of baby food in the sink that were left over from a baby shower....we played the game where you have to guess what the baby food is...anyway. I thought the colors looked fun for a color scheme for my house someday. Here's the picture! I wouldn't choose those colors now, but at the time it inspired me! Ok, back to the blog and new tool I found out about from her! It's called Chip It and it's created by Sherwin Williams and it's genius! You can take any picture you like the colors in, put it in Chip It and it will tell you what paint colors to use to get those colors! AMAZING! You can get a Chip It button for your toolbar and you can save all your various inspirations! Check it out!

Newly Wed

I was cleaning our oven the other day and it made me think of when Joshua and I were newly weds. Here's the story. We lived on campus at Oklahoma Baptist University and we were learning all sorts of things about being grown ups! One of those things was about getting utilities turned on. Joshua called the gas company way before it got cold in the fall to have them turn the gas on for our heater. A few weeks went by and it got cold one night so we turned the heat on. It clicked and nothing happened, so we turned it off and thought we'd wait a few more days. The gas company had given a range of something like 10-14 days for the gas to get turned on, so we thought they must not have gotten to us yet. So we just used an extra blanket that night and the next few nights. I'm sure we tried the heat again a few times with the same results. So Joshua contacted the gas company again, we thought maybe we just got overlooked and maybe they needed another request to come turn the gas on. So we kept waiting. It was getting colder and colder though. It was probably October. As we kept waiting for the gas to get turned on, we took heating our small apartment into our own hands....I'm sure there are tons of warnings against doing this but it was November and we were getting cold! We would turn the oven on and get it really hot and then open it up so the heat would "heat" the apartment! We did this for a while, maybe a couple of weeks and finally we asked our friends that lived below us if they were having any problems with getting their gas turned on. They weren't and they had had their heat for several weeks. Our next step was to have the fix it guy come look at the heater since Joshua had talked with someone at the gas company and they were certain that the gas had been turned on for weeks. The fix it guy came and turned the heat on, it clicked just like we had already noted it would do and then we just waited for about 3 minutes and the heat came right on! We had not been waiting for the heater to "warm up". Nothing was wrong with the heater and the gas was probably turned on the day after Joshua had asked them to do it! We felt really dumb but we had a good laugh then and we still continue to laugh at ourselves over that one!

DIRT!!

It's So Easy It Doesn't Need a Tutorial!

I saw a door decoration on pinterest and decided to make one similar. It is so easy to make! All you have to get is an umbrella, some flowers, ribbon or lace, and a hook. Fill the umbrella with the flowers, tie the ribbon or lace around it, and hang it up!! April showers sure are bringing the May flowers around here!

Happy Easter!!

"He is not here for He is risen, just as He said!"

To Make Real Friends, Be a Friend of God

Let me just start out by saying that when I make a general statement in this post, I know that I am making a general statement....I know there are exceptions to the rules and not all people fall into the following categories. That being said---I will make the following generalizations!

We live in a neighborhood that has the word "estates" as part of the title. We live in a neighborhood where most of the houses probably sell for about half a million dollars (at least the updated ones!). We live in a neighborhood where there is an unspoken message being proclaimed that unless you have the right car, the right job, the right amount of kids, the right salary, the right clothes, send your kids to the right schools, keep your yard a certain way and so on and so on you just don't quite belong or fit in. I don't have the right things so it goes without saying that I don't quite fit in. I'm ok with that, I don't really care for my own benefit to fit in, but I would like to be some influence--namely I want to proclaim Christ to the people that I live around. But that's rather a hard thing to do when you don't know the people. (Ok, we do know the people that live right around us and they are lovely people) I am mainly thinking about people that are close to our age....we are poor compared to them! Anyway, I've been thinking how can I be of more influence to the people that I live around if we hardly see or talk with them. I think there are things that can be found in common, things that will bridge the gap between our worlds, but it's a tough nut to crack. So, all this thinking about how hard it has been to get to know people and find things in common has lead me to think of how utterly unique and beautiful Christ's church is.

The Church, the Bride of Christ, while still imperfect, is a glorious picture of how rich people and poor people and all sorts of people can be friends and more important, family. People that I would not normally think of being friends with I am able to be friends with because of the common denominator of Christ. The more I think on that the more it blows my mind. When I think of the barriers that are up towards us from peers in our neighborhood and then I think of the friendships we have with believers the more I see that only Christ can bring people together! It seems like although people are polite, hell would freeze over before people in our neighborhood would allow more than a mere socially correct conversation to happen.

I was so blessed to hear my father in law preach today on Romans 15:5-6 which says all that I was thinking about the unity of Christians and it says it much better than my feeble ramblings. Here is the handout Joshua's dad shared with his congregation. I hope it will encourage you as much as it did me.

"Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you many with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 15:5-6

In this wonderful passage of Scripture we are given a wish-filled benediction identifying one of the great all-consuming purposes that God has for human history. Why did God send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Why did Jesus die upon the cross and rise again from the dead? Why did God give birth to the church in the life and miraculous work of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? Why is Jesus coming back to earth to consummate and culminate redemption and history in His Lordship? Why? Here we have a reason that gives a true and great ultimate purpose to these things? God is putting together a people, His people throughout history, through redemption in Jesus Christ so that the day will come when these people will with one voice rise up together in unity of mind and heart to glorify God in all His worthiness, goodness, and transcendent wonder. This is why God does everything He does--He is putting together a people from all over the world to possess one mind in Christ and speak with one voice the unifying praise of the Lord in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. The text tells us the following concerning this overarching theme:

1. Perseverance and encouragement, a vital necessity in Christian living and experience, is actually a work of God given to us in the journey of our salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ in the work of the Holy Spirit.

2. Although God loves every Christian as His own child, yet God wants every Christian to experience the important blessing of Sharing the "same mind" with other believers in Christ. This same mind is centered on the nature and meaning of the true gospel of free sovereign grace through the saving work of Christ on the cross and resurrection, made real in us individually and among us corporately through the unifying love and work of the Holy Spirit. See Philippians 2:1-2

3. The work of God's saving grace and the glorious work o the Holy Spirit in regeneration and sanctification baptizes the believer into the on Body of Christ (See 1 Corinthians 12:13), gifting us for living and service in the Body of Christ (See 1 Corinthians 12:27-31), and giving to all believers a common life (the life of Christ), which we share in love and covenant together in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus Christians are to live together in Christ "in one accord."

4. This inner oneness shared by CHristians finds expression with one common voice praising and glorifying God because of and focused on the gospel of His saving grace in Jesus Christ. This is what the church celebrates in worship, and this worshipful celebration of the gospel in oneness of heart and voice reflects the triumphant church's experience in heaven for all eternity.

Application to LIfe
1. Christian oneness is a gift from God and not a human creation forced upon people either by effort or institutionalization.

2. Christian oneness in essence is the church in love with God because of Jesus Christ and through the work of the gospel, grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit, thus this oneness is founded on truth, birthed in regeneration and nurtured in love.

3.Christian oneness is a miracle of God's power in salvation that transforms sinners from selfish, caustic, irritating rebels causing division and hurt into selfless saints sharing, promoting, and living in the love and joy of God's eternal transcendent goodness in the context of human history and life's difficult fallen environment.

4. Therefore, the more the Christian loves and rejoices in Jesus, the closer the Christian gets in affection and mind to God and to other Christians in the church.

5. And the more the church experiences Christians growing in love and joy in Christ, in the light of the gospel, the more the earthly church will together rejoice in and love the Lord.

6. Furthermore, the more this happens on earth in the life, worship, and experience of the earthly church, the more the earthly church resembles the heavenly church.

7. The greater the earthly church rejoices in the Lord, joining in the heavenly church glorifying and honoring the Lord God of heaven and earth, the more redeemed humanity manifests the entire point of why God made people, the more glory God is glorified on earth, and the more frustrated Satan gets.

"May the God who inspires men to endure, and gives them constant encouragement, give you a mind united with one another in your common loyalty to Christ Jesus. And then , as one man, you will sing from the heart the praises of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So open your hearts to one another as Christ has opened his heart to you, and God will be glorified." Romans 15:5-7 J.B. Phillips "The New Testament in Modern English."

Amen!

My Little Boy

Daniel had a birthday not too long ago and it's hard to believe that I have a 3 year old...but I do!

Daniel is turning into quite the fun little boy. He's lost much of his babyish looks and he certainly talks up a storm! He has developed quite an imagination and it's fun to have him say, "Mama, let's 'tend this, that's a good idea isn't it?" I think his middle name is play! His favorite color is green and I think it's a toss up if pizza or chicken nuggets are his favorite food. He loves chocolate, just like his Daddy. And his favorite sport is soccer or baseball, I'm not sure what dictates which is his favorite when! He finds the mud puddles outside almost instinctively and he loves to get dirty! He also loves to help me make dinner, although I'm pretty sure that cooking is not what he's most interested in--it's the food he gets to snag while we are making it!

He loves his little sister so much and does all sorts of silly things to make her laugh.

He is quite strong willed, which we pray God will use for His glory as our little man continues to grow and mature. We are so thankful for the interest that he has shown in spiritual things and we pray that that will continue and that he will come to love and trust in Christ.

He is a sweet little boy and I am thankful to be his Mama.

When Things Don't Go As Planned

We have been here at my parents house for about 2 weeks and we have loved every bit of it. The hubby was back at home taking comprehensive exams. Whew! They are over and we are heading back to him. We have really had a great time but we are ready to get back to hubby/daddy!

My parents have a pool and we have had a blast in the warmed up water of the hot tub! I was reminded today of God's grace in Daniel's life as I saw the scar that he has on his left shoulder blade area. He had surgery to fix a coarctation of the aorta when he was about 12 days old. I wrote a lot about this and actually his birth in the scrapbook that I have made for him, but I think that for the next few weeks I'll write some thoughts on the things that I learned during that time and some of the things that I have reflected on now--3 years since that time. I want to do this in hopes that my experiences may help someone else to hope more in God.

So, stay tuned!!