Satan is with us every step!

I realized something after I read Caroline's post about the gospel counterfeits. SATAN IS WITH US ALWAYS. I remember in church yesterday that I was questioning a lot that has been stressing Kinzie and I out about the community group we are in and just the absolute heartless "Christians" in church. It makes me so heart broken to see the state of the congregation today. As I continued to think after receiving brash comments during our Sunday morning class, Satan took the situation to bring up questions of the church. I guess I figured that Satan would just attack outside the building walls, but NO!!!! he has a foot in the door of my mind. We have to be constantly aware that even in times where we feel we can let down our guard that he will take that moment to break our spirits. We are vulnerable every second we are awake and asleep. Take your thoughts as windows into the spiritual realm. They can either be God leading you into His will or they can be uncomfortable thoughts and feelings of Satan persuading us into sin.

I also think it is amazing how God gently molds our lives together from experiences that we believe don't matter, or have no worth, into a lifetime goal. This has recently been the case since finding out what plans he has for Kinzie and I. Some people have a definite plan of what they should be and God opens doors for them to achieve their goals. Others have what seems to be a scattered life that has no definite goal. What beauty I see in God when I hear the stories of life and know He works in mine.
To be honest I have failed God a lot. I break His heart every day that I don't discipline myself to wake up early and study His word. I don't deserve this life that he has guided me through. I think knowing that has fashioned me into a cheerful giver. I thank God for that ability. Mark you recently traveled abroad. Those cultures are incredibly fascinating how they seem to harmonize. I can't wait to spend that eternity where we will all have harmony with the God that has Loved us enough to let us choose our lives. I challenge you to Live every day for Christ, breaking the world's heart instead of God's.
Peace, I'm out!

Gee Whiz

So, if ever the saying that God can work through anything holds true, it has to be now for Adam and I. Over the weekend Adam went camping with a buddy from Auburn. They met in the smoky mountains and hiked 12 miles over two days. He was able to tell him about all the things God has been doing in our lives and how we are seeking Him for the "next move". I stayed at home and worked on tons of schoolwork but really had a hard time without adam there at night. I will admit that I am a pansy but nothing makes me feel safer than having Adam with me. That night I didn't get much sleep and was in a horrible mood by the time he got home. Plus, he didnt have service the whole weekend and with bad weather coming thier way I made myself sick with worry ( a talent i have). So needless to say when he got home we had words and were not in the best of moods when we arrived at church the next morning. However, God had a sermon planned just for us. Reggie preached on the miracles that happened through Christ's ressurection...which is a whole other blog. Through the entire message Reggie was giving historical secular evidence of Christs ressurection and the unexplained physical events that happened. Also in Sunday school, our leader told us how he has learned that God reveals things that he is seeking through his wife. He said that women are just a little better at being intuitive (i whole heartedly agree) and that sometimes he will pray "God, if you dont reveal to me what you want, please reveal it to my wife". I mean we are a couple for a reason, right? So anyways, back to the sermon....at the end of the sermon I was really overwhelmed by A-the message and awesome ways that God somehow makes every little bit of his word cohesive and B-the need i felt to tell adam that i really did think God was calling him to do biblical archaeology. So flipping back through my 3 huge pages of notes I found a blank spot and wrote " I think you should do biblical archeaology and passed it to Adam. He immediately started crying (i hope its ok that i am telling people this honey) and started praying. He told me that God had really been working on him while hiking and that I had just confirmed alot of things that he had been asking God to answer. So, now Adam is in the process of applying and getting information to go to grad school and get his PhD in biblical archeaology..i mean what better way to spend your life than showing a secular world secular proof of a loving God that came to earth to pay a debt for people who didn't accept him. I am sooo excited for Adam, we have been praying that God would reveal the next step to him for a while. This is my own opinon but I think that in order to know that you want to spend your life proclaming Jesus as Lord you have to be walking with him-and Adam has really been growing by leaps and bounds in his relationship. I also think that God had to do a little convincing on my part so that I would 100% supportive of Adam since this will require some sacrifice. The sacrifice is that now I am "busting" it to get done with grad school a semester early. I am pretty sure I can pull it off but it means 3 more semesters (summer, fall and spring ) of 15 hours of class and full time work. This also means that we will be moving in one year and therefore have decided to call off our house hunt, which in turn means renting for another year, which is not the most desirable choice. The sacrificies though are so small when compared to the rich life that I believe God has planned for us if we keep following Him. I ask for prayer for Adam and for God to give us the finances for yet another 3 years of grad school. I know that God will continue to watch over us (we haven't gone hungry yet!!..and neither have our cats!!!). Thank you God for working through a weekend that wasn't so newlywedish and turning it into a weekend of promise and fulfillment in life with you.

well its about time

So...adam figured out what our username and password was...since i am horrible with those and i decided it was time for us to post on here. Ill start with the most current news...we are househunting!! We have been for about a month now and although we are extremely picky (we aren't settling) we are sure that God has the perfect first house for us. It helps that our best friends up here are realtors...so we go like almost everyday. Its fun to imagine living in different spaces and how you could change it. We are also beginning to discover more and more each day about why God moved us up here. We have become very attatched to our church family and finding more ways to serve there. We have found about 3 couples that we adore and spend most of our time with..and some singles too :). I feel bad that I have latched on to so many people up here, b/c to be honest I have noticed that i call old friends less. I really do miss my time at Auburn and the friends I had but I know that life is full of changes and holding on to those times is standing still..not growing. Adam and I are also in the middle of a time of prayer for his future. He is in between going back to get his PhD and moving around some this summer to work at different digs...not that he can't choose both but that both decisions require some sort of sacrifice. I am eager to see what is in the future for Adam, b/c as we all know you can't find a more genuine person that loves to serve. I am in my second semester as a graduate student and even though working during the day and going to school at night isn't my first choice I know that in 3 semesters I will accomplish the goal that I have had for about 7-8 years now. I love being in the high schools, especially the clay classes. I am also getting my ESL certification, so I can use that in missions. Other news is that my dad got a motorcycle...now this may not seem significant enough but it overwhelms me. My dad has also been a work horse, never allowing himself to reap any reward or get time off.....he feels guilty when he has spare time or buys things for himself. He recently found a motorcyle that he liked and went home to discuss it with my mom. She told that he "wasn't getting any younger and that he deserved it"....So he went back the next weekend and bought it, along with, in his words, a "steller helmet", luggage rack and something else that flew over my head. His doctor advised him against it since he has bad neck problems but my dad says he wont let that keep him from it. He seriously rides the motorcycle every day!!! He even jumped at the chance to work nights so that he could ride his motorcylce more during the day..that was just for 2 weeks but still. He has also managed to lose his cell phone while on it. A man called my mom from my dads cell phone # and told her that he saw the phone fly out of a man pocket who was riding a motorcycle...hilarious. He is so happy and he sooo deserves it!! So anyways, enough of that....we will start posting more frequently.....we promise!! A thought to leave you with...... Your talk talks and your walk talks, but does your talk talk louder than your walk talks? (from a disciple now we did 2 weekends ago...it sounds elementary but really stop and think about)

Will repented sin be brought up in Heaven as "paid in full?"

So this is a question I know that many of us have thought about and to be honest I thought that i knew the answer too. I remember going to a different (i dont want to put the denomination) church with a friend when i was in 5th grade and hearing about the repercussions of our sin...how if i sinned then my children would suffer for it and when i got to heaven that God would show me my sin (they claimed that God would show me the faces of all of those that I didn't share with that ended up in hell). So when our pastor was asked this by one of our church members he decided to preach on this topic. He titled his sermon "Thank God for the Cross: God is Satisfied!" This was a very emotional sermon for him to preach for obvious reasons....the realization that our sin is paid in full should bring you to tears of thankfulness. I know adam and I were overwhelmed with a feeling of love for our God and this was one of those sermons that we actually talked about over lunch with our friends (joel, you know what i mean). So here it is....in my words. First of all, the church member told our pastor that she just kept going back to her salvation and wondering if she would ever see her sin again.
He responded with Romans 8:38-39 " For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".
In other words God's love for us is final and secure. To prove this even more, we looked at Genesis 12:2-3 which is God's covenant with Abraham GET READY, THIS IS GOOD STUFF!!! "

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you And I will curse him who curses you. And in you all families of the earth shall be blessed".
So we learn that that from Abraham there will be many people who will form a nation that God will bless. But, in Genesis 15: we learn that Abraham and Sarah are not able to have kids and Abraham is worried that Eliezer, the son of one of the servants of thier household will be the heir of Abraham. God comforts him and says
" This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body will be your heir"- vs. 4
God tells him that the # of offspring that will come from him will be like the # of stars in the heavens . Abraham asks God how he can know these things are true and here is where the covenant is made. Abraham is commanded to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon and to cut them in two, except for the birds. In ancient covenants the two who were making the covenant would walk between the cut carcasses, affirming that the same should happen to them if they broke the covenant. God had different plans for the covenant between he and Abraham though. While Abraham was waiting for the next move from God, God caused him to fall into a deep sleep where he revealed to Abraham that he would not see the promise of this blessed nation played out in his lifetime. He would die before the blessed nation would reach the promised land. God put Abraham to sleep because the covenant did not involve any promise on His part. He would not walk through the peices as a pledge.When Abraham woke up he saw a burning lamp and a smoking oven passing between the two peices of the carcasses. The burning lamp is Jesus-he is called the light of the world and the smoking oven is God-when an offering is completely done all that is left is smoke....the smoke symbolized the satisfaction of God. Therefore instead of God making this covenant with Abraham he made the covenant with himself. Instead of God and Abraham walking through the carcasses, God and Jesus walked through them...the covenant was that Jesus would die for our sin and God would be satisfied with it. God promised in this covenant that Abrahams descendents would be heirs of this promise.....WE are the HEIRS OF THAT PROMISE....OUR sin has been taken care of because of the covenant between Jesus and God. God knew that Abraham couldn't keep this covenant with him....Abraham is human and would die, and b/c of that his part of the covenant would be conditional. We see that this is true in Hebrews 6 vs. 13
" For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself......vs. 15 " And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise". vs. 17 (this is the GOOD PART) Thus God, determing to show more abundantly to His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
The two immutable things are God's promise and the fulfillment of it.....the oath of cofirmation that is the end of all strife, GOD IS SATISFIED.
Isaiah 53:10-11 tells us this " Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grieft. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be SATISFIED. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their inquities.
Isn't that powerful, to know that our salvation doesn't rest in God's commitment to us, but in His commitment to Himself? Therefore we can rest in the sacrifice of Christ, and God's ability to keep his promise. We were judged as sinners at Calvary. We are judged as sons now. We will be judged as servants at the Judgement Seat. Don't let the sin in your past burden you. Don't allow Satan to tell you that your salvation can be taken from you. GOD IS SATISFIED.

MAKE IT WORK

So my love for Brenna Glasgow grew so much that it overfloweth my cup last night when she called to tell me that in 5 minutes THE SHOW would be coming on. Project Runway has been a staple in our friendship for a long time and this season she and her husband have graciously allowed us to enter thier friendly competition. The four of us will each pick two people that we think have a chance at winning....individual couples decide on the reward should one of thier people win. Here are some comments from last night though.....First of all I think one of the requirements to be a contestant this season was to have ridiculously bad hair...hair that is either asymmetrical, from the 80's or should only belong to a bird of paradise. Secondly, the fact that there is a women named Sweet P who designs motorcycle club wear and has an alter ego named Mean P leaves me speechless. However, based on what we saw last night, here are our two picks....Adam-Christian and Kevin.....He likes Christian's attention to detail and i think he picked Kevin b/c he is the only straight man contestant. If Adam's picks dont hold out very long I will take full blame since he missed about 5 minutes of the show spooning me up a HUGE BOWL of fudge ripple ice cream. My picks are Kit and Rami.......suprising even myself, I loved Kit's red and black dress...its different and she seems focusesd. I picked Rami before he won,(i yelled it in adam's face so he wouldn't pick him as well) because of his draping and favorite choice.....i would definitely choose him to make my runway dress....if and when the public discovers my talent. Ok, thats all...can't wait to read the glasgow's thoughts. Peace out!!!

The Heavenly Life

Alright...this is my first post. I'll attempt to keep this short and I will try to get everything out and still make sense.
Well......I have been reading a wonderful book about heaven. God has opened up a new perspective on reading the Bible and thinking about our lives here on Earth.
We are all sinful creatures. It is a SIN that the first man and woman made by disobeying God's one rule. Now we are subjected to following a different rule amongst utter chaos (it is crazy out there people). That rule is to Love. I don't mean just hug your friend or pat your teammate on the bottom. I mean true love. It breaks my heart to hear about the struggles and turmoil occurring in our world today. Jesus came to show us that "Love" and to lead a sinless life in one of the most corrupt ages. That is why I accept Him as my Lord and Savior so that I might be able to live as one church in Heaven.
I guess that is why this book hit me smack in the face. I never considered how much more of a witness I could be by understanding where we all will end up. Let me start by asking a single question....What do you imagine heaven to be like? think about it......the details people. Ok, I thought we would be disembodied spirits hovering and living in glass houses while constantly praising God!
What could be better? Has it encouraged your spiritual evangelism to have this picture of heaven looming in the back of your mind? Have you ever imagined what Earth would be like if it were perfect? Well....that is what God made in the beginning! What makes you think that he will just give up his creation to the devil and sin! Exactly, many verses in the Bible (Revelation 21:1, Isaiah 65:17) suggest that Heaven is a New Earth and the New Jerusalem, where God lives currently in Heaven, will be brought down and He will live with His believers after sin is eradicated. He did not make our spiritual body then force the spirit into this disgusting sinful flesh. No, He created man in His image with spirit and flesh together to create a living being.
That is also why Jesus came to save us and the Earth. Jesus came as God in flesh and therefore to become the new Adam and pardon the universe from sin. From the beginning to the end the alpha and omega. Since God cannot be around sin He has sent His Spirit to live with us and Guide our life on this Earth. How amazing are those quiet times alone with God. Just imagine all of God together living on a physical Earth and being able to walk with Him for eternity. Don't you want to be a part of this amazing plan!?
I am too excited! I want you to ask questions and search through the Bible. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Respectable Sin

So we have found a really great church home and in all honesty have become more involved there than we were at Parkway. I guess thats good since we prayed that God would use us while we dont have children and therefore have less responsibility. Anyways, our preacher is Calvanist and preaches strong biblical truths....like I have never heard before. The first Sunday that we were there he spoke about Christ as our witness. He summed up the sermon with putting up a picture from the Holocaust. The picture was black and white except for the jacket of a small girl that was red. Its a very famous picture and you may have seen it. Anyways he went on to say that during the Holocaust the Nazi's had this one method of killing the different families in groups..so children would see thier parents die right in front of thier faces. This in itself is horrible...but then you think How can anyone shoot a mother right in front of thier childs face? Our preacher pointed out that the Nazi's knew that there wouldn't be any witnesses because right after killing the parents they would move on to the children and eventually the entire jewish race. The Nazis believed that in the end there would be no one to stand up to testify on the behalf of the jews. Then he reminded us of how Christ came and was put to death and 3 days later rose again...to be our witness. How awesome is that...we have someone who is willing to testify for us, against our sin and give an account on our behalf. It gives us a whole new look into the many titles that our Lord occupies. He will be there at the judgement and the good news is that He is on our side...they couldn't kill Him, they couldn't get rid of our witness. ( I am picturing myself , along with Mark Murphy, yelling Amen and Hallelujah about now). That gets me excited......now on to respectable sin.
I have to preface this with some current news in Johnson City. There is a park, about 5 mins from where we live that has frisbee golf courses, soccer fields and a baseball park. A couple of weeks ago a undercover cop was there and was approached by a man who invited him to come to the mancave. The Mancave turns out to be a meeting spot in the woods of this park where over 40 local men have been meeting and participating in homosexual activity. Obviously, there were other things going on b/c all 40 men were taken to jail. Whats worse is that the next Sunday, the Johnson City Press put pictures of all 40 men on the front page of the paper...exposing thier sin. Two of these men were pastors and one was a deacon from various churches around here. Our preacher was deeply affected about this article and knew some of the men. That Sunday morning he was quick to respond and told our congregation that the only difference between them and us was the fact that our sin just hadn't been exposed to the world. Our church decided to reach out to these men by writing letters and offereing them a church family that would take them in and love them through this time and despite their sin. One man however committed suicide the very next day. Another one called our church and weeped to our pastor about how his wife had died 6 years earlier and now everyone that he knew had turned against him...he will be attending our church after all of his court hearings are over. Another man has called and asked us to take in his 18 year old son who has just announced his homosexuality. I believe that our church is really acting like the church in these situations and taken in the people that society is marking as sinners and the unloveable. Todays sermon was called Respectable Sin and our pastor quoted several men on this topic. One is by Jerry Bridges who wrote a book on sin and he says " We have become so preoccupied with the well-known sins of society that we have lost sight of the need to deal with our own more "refined" or subtle sins". Another quote is by sociologist Martha Witten "the concept of sin has been accommodated to fit secular sensibilities...the language frequently cushions the listeners from their impact...". Our pastor went on to say that in the church we tag our sins as "undesirable habits" or "problem areas" in our life. Isn't that true?....I know that I myself have trouble calling my sin, SIN. I instead ask for prayer about my small problems and then remind myself that I am human...like that is an excuse. He urged us to start our judging on ourselves and remind ourselves that admitting we were a sinner is how we received salvation. I was really hit strong by this sermon, not because I have so much sin in my life...and i do, but because of the way I play it down, not realizing how much I water down the crucifixtion when doing so. So to tie up all of this deep stuff...well deep for me that is, our pastor introduced me to a new verse today...one that i will cling to when enveloped in my own sin and looking for God's righteousness to restore me. Psalm 85: 9-10 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed.
I took this verse to mean that those who renounce their sinful nature and put trust in Christ will receive salvation and participate in the future kingdom, and there mercy, truth, righteousness and peace will all be in perfect harmony in an intimate setting....I can't wait!!!