June'ish Update

Hello! Well for those of you who do not know, we did not get the house that I posted about. We are getting many different stories regarding the house, and the reason why we did not get it, so we just decided to move on. I know God has a great house for us, or maybe it's not our time to buy a house right now. Knowing that still does not make the disappointment go away, but we do find peace and comfort in our faith.

This Sunday is our last week of One Prayer. We are having a guest pastor come and speak at The Ridge. I am excited to hear him, and see what he has to say. We also are having a celebration on Sunday night, and as of right now we have 24 people signed up to get baptized. Can I please just tell you how excited I am! I love baptisms and I also bawl like a baby at them. So I will make sure I have my box of Kleenex with me, and my camera to capture the awesome moments.

Other then church stuff, not a lot going on. I have one month left of school, then I am finished! Hallelujah! I can't believe Molly will be 2 in a little over a month! Where did the time go? I am handling 2 a lot better then 1, but I still miss my little baby. Eric is busy, busy, busy, as usual. I am going to church camp with him in July. My mom is flying in to watch Molly for us, and we are going to be family leaders at camp with middle schoolers. I am pretty excited to go. Other then I found out today that there is no AC at the camp. Yikes! It has been over 100 degrees here all week. I don't even want to know what it is going to be like in July!

I pray you all have a great weekend and check back in on Monday. I plan on posting pics from our One Prayer Celebration!

One Prayer- Week 3

Today we listened to Pastor Craig from LifeChurch.tv. I have his blog linked on the side of my page, so go there and check him out. He was the one who came up with the whole concept of One Prayer. I really enjoy listening to him and he is very funny. I didn't take any official notes, but here is what I learned. God is not just about love, he is love. Craig talked a lot about feeling insignificant, bad, and unlovable. God does not love you any less or anymore more when you do something. His love is constant, always there, never wavering.

Craig's main point was God is love, and he loves us. How awesome is that. Seriously, he loves us, he chose us, he died for us.

His sermon was really good, and made me think a lot.

Happy Father's Day and have a great rest of the weekend.

One Prayer Week 2

This week we had a guest speaker. His name is Pastor Guy, I am not a big fan of referring to Pastors as Pastor So and So, but I do not know his last name, and his first name is Guy, so I will call him Pastor Guy. He spoke about Christians and their doubt. Here are the notes...

"The shame isn't that people have doubts, but that they are ashamed of them." Os Guiness

Would it be freeing to know that doubt is normal and common? John 8:32

If we deny or bury...
A. We will never overcome them
B. We will short circuit other people's journey to God
-Faith does not require you to know all of the answers

Doubts flow from questions

Principles for Handling Doubt
1. Identify it
2. Talk about it, Jude 1:22
3. Ask God for help, Mark 9:24
4. Act on what faith you have

Doubt wins when it restrains our faith. The opposite of faith is not doubt; it is unbelief.

Perspective: I do not call doubt my friend; neither do I call it my enemy; I find it to be one of my most challenging teachers.

Waiting

A couple of weeks ago my friend, Kristin posted this video on her blog, I must admit, I listen to it frequently. I first heard it when I watched Fireproof, and it really ministered to me. I love the words about worshiping, and serving while waiting on God.

Do you really serve while waiting, worship while waiting? I know I don't, well at least not all of the time. I am usually the impatient waiter, the grumpy waiter, and the instant, I want it now waiter. I feel like I have a lot of patience with people, but when it comes to the Almighty, it's a little different story.

Right now we are waiting on a house. Our offer was accepted by the people who used to own it, and now we are waiting on the bank to accept it. The guy who usually approves these types of things, well he is on vacation right now. So we are 50% there. But this time around while we were waiting to hear back on a house, I felt like I had a little different attitude. I just kept remembering that God is the same today as he was yesterday, and he will be the same tomorrow, faithful, he is faithful always.

What are you waiting on? Are you serving, are you worshiping while you wait? Maybe you should try to be, the wait might get a whole lot different.

One Prayer-Week 1

On Sunday our church started the One Prayer series with other churches all over the world. I had a great time participating in One Prayer last year, and I knew this year would be no exception.
Have you ever sat in church, listening to the sermon, and thought to yourself, "Oh my word, the minister must of bugged my house this week, because this sermon is all about me!" That's how I felt on Sunday. I had just come off a very rough week of a teething child-8 teeth to be exact, starting the Terrible Twos, starting new allergy medicine, being behind in school, and pretty much questioning everything that I thought once was true or right. I needed a pick me up, and here's what I got...
Mark's sermon entitled, "A Box of Failures" Thanks God, I really need everyone to know that I am a failure, a loser, behind in life, but here's what I heard...everyone is a failure too. As I looked around the room I didn't feel so bad anymore. We mainly talked about Peter, one of Jesus' disciples and his major failure, denying Christ 3 times.
Then Mark gave us 3 ways God is able to fix our failure...
1.Own it-admit your failure, desire to make a change, Matt. 26
2. Stay in the group- It would of been so easy for Peter to not be a disciple anymore, take the road Judas took, and leave it all behind him, yet he stayed in the group, don't feel like the church can't or won't accept you because of your failures, keep in the group! John 21:2, you will find healing in the group, Eccl. 4:9, we all fail!
3. Bring it to Jesus- John 21:15-17, Love, This is the conversation Jesus had with Peter, Do you love me, feed my sheep, Do you love me, Feed my sheep, Do you love me, feed my sheep.
Other Misc. Notes:
*The root cause of failure is pride
*When the pride of our failure is dealt with, we change
*We let the failure cripple us
*Follow Peter's example, allow God to give you mercy and forgiveness
I really enjoyed Mark's sermon a lot. I do feel like a failure at times, and if people knew some of my failures they would look at me differently. It's hard sometimes to overcome my failures, especially being a pastor's wife, I should be perfect, ha! I am a normal Christian, trying to follow Christ's example everyday, doing the same as you.
On Saturday, Eric and I, along with another couple are going to listen to Mark preach at another church. I am excited to go and experience a different kind of service. I love seeing what other churches are doing out there.

One Prayer 2009

On Sunday, June 7, One Prayer 2009 officially kicks off. I am super pumped! Even if your church isn't participating, which you should strongly urge your church to next year, you can still be a part of a great thing here.
I decided that the class I teach at church, the 4/kindergartners should be learning the same thing as the adults. Well there is no curriculum for the this age, so my over-zealous self decided to write it all. What was I thinking, seriously?! Well, as off last night, I finished the curriculum! I am excited and nervous to see what the other teachers think of it, but more excited that the kids can share in the same themes that the adults are learning about as well.
I am excited for our guest speakers, and for the whole "program" in general. Last year our church had an amazing time being part of it, and I know the same will go for this year. I love the idea of churches coming together, working together, and serving together. Hello, I think this is what God had in mind back in Acts. Too bad it has taken this long for it to happen!
Please pray for all of the churches world wide taking part in One Prayer. With such a great thing, also comes attacks from Satan. Please pray that we are able to stand strong against him, together, as one, as the church.