Conformed or Transformed?

I love you so much, Brian! We have grown so much these past 18 years we have known each other. You are a great Husband and Father. You care so much for your family. Thank you for your love for me. I look forward to many more years with you!

Yesterday was a great day to be in the house of the Lord! There's some "junk" going on, but as I told my Senior Pastor, that means something good is going on here. So, let's keep pressin' on. We covet your prayers for us as we try to handle these situations. I preached on "Attempting the Impossible" based on Matthew 14, where Jesus fed the 5000 and where Jesus and Peter walked on water. It was a good message for me, as there are situations in my life that seem impossible and without God, I can't make it. The thing that God spoke to my heart most was this: We need to keep our eyes on the Savior and not the situations. It's easy for me to get frustrated with the situations of life, but my job is to have a good relationship with God and seek His heart for what I am to be doing....and then keep my eyes focused on the Savior and let the situations fall to the side. Jesus told Peter to come out on to the lake in Matthew 14 and His focus was tot...

We need revival when.... ... when we do not love God as we once did. ... when earthly interests and occupations are more important to us than eternal ones. ...when we would rather watch TV and read secular books and magazines than read the Bible. ... when our Christianity is joyless and passionless. ... when we know truth in our heads that we are not practicing in our lives. ... when we make little effort to witness to the lost. ...when we have time for sports, recreation, and entertainment, but not for Bible study or prayer. . . . when we do not tremble at the power of God. On the other hand, the characteristics that take place when revival comes are... ... a deepened spiritual hunger ... intense fervent prayer that is enjoyable not dreadful ... repentance ... reckless abandonment and surrender to God ... a fresh fullness of the Holy Spirit ... spontaneous evangelism and soul winning ... restored relationships ... a spirit of thanksgiving and joy ... increased hunger for God's Wor...

O MOST kind, most loving Lord, Whom I now desire to receive with devotion, You know the weakness and the necessity which I suffer, in what great evils and vices I am involved, how often I am depressed, tempted, defiled, and troubled. To You I come for help, to You I pray for comfort and relief. I speak to Him Who knows all things, to Whom my whole inner life is manifest, and Who alone can perfectly comfort and help me. You know what good things I am most in need of and how poor I am in virtue. Behold I stand before You, poor and naked, asking Your grace and imploring Your mercy. Feed Your hungry beggar. Inflame my coldness with the fire of Your love. Enlighten my blindness with the brightness of Your presence. Turn all earthly things to bitterness for me, all grievance and adversity to patience, all lowly creation to contempt and oblivion. Raise my heart to You in heaven and suffer me not to wander on earth. From this moment to all eternity do You alone grow sweet to me, for You alone ...

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt "Citizenship in a Republic,"Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

"If you want to learn anything worthwhile, seek rather to be unknown and to be thought of as nothing." - Thomas A Kempis This is the true concept of humbleness. I want to serve and do things for God, but I need to do it for the Lord…serving Him only and if nobody else ever knows or acknowledges it, the fact that God knows is enough and satisfying to me. But, to do nothing, because I can’t be known while doing it is sin. It’s hard not to want recognition for our work, yet our soul motivation should be out of a love for God …nothing more….nothing less.

Have you seen the movie "Facing the Giants"? I am becoming very familiar with it, as Pastor Roger and I are doing a sermon series based on the movie. I will be preaching two of the sermons in the series. The two sermons I will be preaching are titled "Never Give Up!" and "Complete Surrender", and boy oh boy, I feel like I am being tested in these areas!!! My husband is trying to sell a big CNC Router. Yesterday a crew flew in from New Jersey to look at it and test it out. They were here all day and it looked as if tey were going to buy it. (This machine cost more than my first house and we really need to sell it) As they were finalizing things, they tried one last cut with the machine. Long story short, the machine ran out of fuel, which caused the air compressor to quit, which caused a malfunction in te air hydrolics and the whole head of te machine came crashing down, causing about $15,000. worth of damage. UGH!!!!! In the Facing the Giants movie, if you...

Olivia decided one day this last week that it was TIME! It was the day to get her ears pierced. Last year her cousin got her ears pierced, and wanted her to go with her, but Olivia was too scared. So, I don't know what changed her mind and gave her the courage she needed, but SHE DID IT! It wasn't easy, as you see from the picture, but she was very brave and they look great!

Yesterday we held church at the park. There are some advantages to being a small church. We had service and then a picnic. We had a really good time. Again, five of the people from H.O.M.E. came and got involved in some healthy fun. It was great to have them. We had fun with water balloons, treasure hunts, volleyball, and races. Here are a few pictures of the day: The young children doing a treasure hunt. My daughter, Olivia and Rebecca with their water balloons. They are going to go find someone that "wants" to get wet. The great ski race! One funny story of the day.....I was doing the games and at the end of all the water balloon games, I let everyone just take balloons and "do what they wanted with them." I asked Pastor Roger if i could use his phone (he he he) He gave me his phone. Then I said ok kids...."hit the Pastor". Yep...you got it....they went after Pastor Roger, but then they realized if the game was to hit the Pastor....that meant the...