Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire

As you know I was reading the book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala. I finished it a week or so ago. Brent has it now.
We have also enjoyed reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and Radical by David Platt. Both of these books have the same message. But what I noticed about Jim Cymbala and his wife is that they have been living out what Francis Chan and David Platt talk about in their books for years and years! They have a firey love for Christ and follows Jesus' teachings in the Bible, not a five step program. They also has a sincere love for people to be changed by Jesus. Jim Cymbala is a humble man. This shows even through his writing. He is a man of prayer. When he prays, he obeys. He doesn't come up with 1000 excuses not to do what God asked of him, he just does it and trusts God through it all.

I also love that in this book he talks about the struggles and doubts along the way that he and his wife have faced. They are not super Christians, they have fears and sins like the rest of us, but they pray and obey and let God use their weaknesses and their love to display His glory.

We had a women's conference the church this weekend. Our speaker gave a definition of the word glory. She said glory means the exact or correct estimation of who God is. How am I showing God's glory each day in my life? How are you?

I encourage you to read the books above. But mostly model your life after Jesus. He is who the world needs anyway, not another program.

OH. MY. WORD.

So tomorrow is the consejo. Oh. my. word. We could have kids. WHAT!?!?!?! This reality hasn't hit me until now. My heart is pounding with excitement! Calm Down! :) The crazy thing about adoption is that you totally have to trust the Lord. There is absolutley no control over anything. So....I'll let you know soon. =)
Psalm 46:10.

Adoption and the Bible

"In the process of adoption, an individual assumes parental responsibility for the child of another, as Mordecai adopted his young relative Esther after the death of her parents.

Joseph adoped Jesus to be recognized as his own sone in the eyes of God and man. This gave all legal inheritance rights traceable through Joseph to Jesus - see Matthew 1:1-25 - assigning Him to legal claim to the Davidic throne. Spiritually, we are the children of God by adoption just as Jesus was the child of Joseph by adoption. This process of adoption give to the one adopted full family standing and rights - Romans 8:15-17. This transacation is a divinely authorized, God-blessed, and legally binding means for adding to the family unit and passing on the family inheritance - Galatians 4:5 and Ephesians 1:5.

Though the Bible does not present explicit legal process or rights and responsibilities demanded for adoption, Old Testament examples are found in Esther's adoption by Mordecai - Esther 2:15. Also from Moses' adoption by Pharaoh's daughter - Exodus 2:10 and in addition to the use of the adoption motif in explaining God's relationship to His people Israel - Deuteronomy 14:2. In the New Testament, adoption describes the believer's relationship with the Lord - Galations 4:3-7 and Ephesians 1:1-6.

When an individual accepts Jesus as Savior, the Holy Spirit completes a transaction of adoption of their behalf. The individual becomes God's child and He becomes his/her Abba. As God's adopted child, we will inherit a perfect home with Him and in the meantime we have immediate access to Him for comfort, direction, provision, etc. He adopted us with pleasure and will never revoke our adoption."

(Taken from an excerpt from the Women's Study Bible)

Stoning Grandma

Destin turned 3 this month. He is so darn cute. I just love that kid. Sometimes he sounds like he is talking with an English accent. He recently broke his arm. We were all thankful that he didn't get a pink cast! He loves pink. Silly boy.

My mom and I took him to Zaxbys one day and while we were sitting there, Destin puts his hand on my shoulder and gets right in my face and says with a grin:
"I stone grandma!" "
"What? Destin! That's not very nice."
"I stone grandma!"

My mom is laughing and says to ask him what he stoned her with.
The answer: a bouncy ball (which he calls a gumball) and an empty icing container from his kitchen.



Apparently my mom has been reading David and Goliath to him and stoning has been taken to a new level! Maybe we should wait to tell him about the stoning of Stephen!

DiscipleNow 2009

Well, we had our first DNow at church May 1-3. Not West Point's first DNow, but the first one that Brent has planned here at this church. It was so great. Algernon Tennyson was our speaker. He's really great and has a great passion for the Lord and the Word.

Here is his website: http://www.awakenintl.com/

We met him back in Texas through some dear friends, Kent and Jane.

A local church provided music for us and did a wonderful job!

We played Couch Wars on Saturday afternoon. Thanks to Chris W.

We loved our study leaders, April, Ben and Adam, Jodi and Matthew! They were fabualous!

Here are a few pics from the weekend:
Junior High Boys Couch Wars

Junior High Girls

Senior High - they burned their couch at the end.

Next up: Summer Camp!

Isaiah 61

Isaiah 61
The Year of the LORD's Favor

"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations."



Isaiah 61. This is my favorite chapter in the Bible right now, in particular verses 1 - 4 (above)


I tried for a long time to figure out how I was to do this and I could never figure it out. Now I know that these verse are talking about Jesus. But for some reason I thought I was supposed help in this. I don't know, but apparently this is my Arrogance? Pride? So I'm reading the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. These verses are in the in chapter that I am in right now and as I read them - it hit me between the eyes - Jesus does this FOR us - we can do nothing to help in this process. He does this for us, if we let Him. Don't you love that!!!

(please correct me if I am wrong. thanks)

The Prophecy of Tyre

Brent and I are in this mentoring thing with a couple through our connection class (sunday school class) at church. It's good. But we've only met twice, so we aren't very far along. We are doing this book called Mentoring 101. So far this week's sessions is about the Bible and it's accuracy. There is a section in the back we have to read called "Can we trust the Bible?" and it goes through 5 reasons the Bible can be trusted. Most of these I learned in college, so some of it was over view, but this is one prophecy they pointed out that I thought was cool. I like archeology and history.

"In addition to the messianic prophecies, the Bible also contains many prophecies regarding the fate of certain cities and nations. As an example of the astounding accuracy of these biblical prophecies, the following is an analysis of the predictions related to the city of Tyre. This city of ancient Phoenicia is now in southern Lebanon. It was once and enemy of Israel.

In Ezekiel 26 (KJV), written between 592 and 570 B.C., the Lord declares His anger towards Tyre for her extreme arrogance. He predicts her invasion by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and her ultimate destruction. Verses 7, 8, and 14, declare her fate:

"For thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon...and he will make siege walls against you... And I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place for the spreading of nets. You will be built no more, for I, the Lord, have spoken,' declares the Lord God. "

The fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy is explained by the Encyclopedia Britanica. It states, 'After a 13-year siege (5850573 B.C.) by Nebuchadenezzar II, Tyre made terms and acknowledged Babylonian suzerainty (sovereignty).' It goes on to say: In his war on the Persians, Alexander III.....marched southward toward Egypt, calling upon the Phoenician cities to open their gates.....The citizens of Tyre refused to do so, and Alexander laid siege to the city. Poessing no fleet, he demolished old Tyre, on the mainland....

Philip Myers, a secular historian, summarizes the fate of Tyre:

'Alexander the Great.....reduced [Tyre] to ruins. She recovered in a measure from this blow, but never regained the place she had previously held in the world. The larger part of the site of the once great city is now bare as the top of a rock - a place where the fisherman that still frequent the spot spread their nets to dry.'

The record of history regarding Tyre makes it obvious that each prophetic detail recorded in Ezekiel was fulfilled just as the Bible predicted."