Recently I have been super inspired by one of my favorite bloggers ( Celee at Miscellaneous Musings) to share what we're doing to go "green". Let me clarify what I believe going Green means. I believe God gave us a beautiful creation, a creation marred by floods and sin, but a creation none the less. He gave us a duty to work and keep the land and animals, therefore I believe in being GREAT managers of that. I completely reject the modern concept of "saving Mother Earth", and also reject all forms of "green movements" that put animals, insects, or land ahead of the lives and safety of humans (notice I said safety, not convenience).
But I am convinced that as we do our best to be resourceful and good stewards of what God has given us, that we will not only shine our light to others, but we will live better, healthier lives.
Having said all of that, here are some very small steps my family and I make to be good stewards of God's creation.....
First, we recycle. We recycle most plastics, glass, and cardboard materials (we also do this for money because every little bit counts ;-). We even recycle foil for money!
Secondly, we practice a "re-using" style of recycling. Here are some ways I am doing this.....
I am trying to use less and less paper towels so, on top of the cloth napkins we already own, I am planning to sew more from this old long pillow sheet, pictured below.
Also, here you can see my homemade BBQ sauce that I am storing in a "recycled" peanut jar.(you save money and at the same time help Creation by not adding more production and waste)
And again, below pictures how I am re-using a plastic butter container for storing more food in the fridge. (never put very hot food or liquids however in most plastics as they can leak chemicals into your food)
One more Re-using idea is simple window coverings. I took two yellow pillowcases that we are no longer using in my sons room, and made them into curtains for my kitchen window. It was an odd shaped window and these fit just perfectly! I am not expecting you to put these in the rooms you entertain the most in, but I think they are perfectly acceptable in a kitchen, bathroom, sun room, or laundry room. The best part is you do not need to be good at sewing! I am not a very good sewer by any means, buy most of us can sew a straight line and make a seam. That is pretty much all I did here. Then I tied them back with some ribbon I had in my ribbon drawer. Like I said these aren't award winners, but they are very functional. I use them frequently at night due to the fact that my kitchen window faces the street (well that, and I happen to do dishes late at night in my pajamas, just sayin')
Air purification. This is something I might file more under the category of saving money, but you could make the case that you are also saving a LOT of plastic and production by skipping the expensive air purifier and buying special plants that Nasa has proven purify your house air almost as good (and in some cases better). Here are a few I picked up at the local nursery free with a coupon. I plan on getting more because only one of these was on the list.
Lastly, buy used. I know not everything can be bought(or should be) used, but there are definitely quite a few things you can. And you don't have to be one of those spectacular, trash to treasure, shabby chic women either. Here is a picture of an old dresser (I think that's what it was, although it seems a bit on the short side) that my husband and I bought at the Salvation Army for 10 dollars. We painted it white, and left the old knobs on instead of buying new ones. We put it in our son's room to hold all his legos. He loves it! It stores beautifully, and we couldn't be more happy with our purchase.
Going Green?
Thirft store finds.
Every once and a while I post on here some of my favorite thrift store finds. I love thrift stores and I have to say that being back in California has really got me excited about thrift store shopping again. When I was in Arkansas the thrift stores were rare. So I mostly shopped at Walmart, just like everyone else in middle America :)
Anyhow, this item may not seem all that spectacular to some, and even less functional to others, but I LOVE IT!
Plus the fact that it is super old just adds to the romance of it all...
(click on any of the pictures to see them enlarged)
Were you able to catch some of those beautiful words? I love this devotional book! I love that it was written over a hundred years ago, so I know the book is not spending the first 20 pages trying to relevant! I hope you all are finding great finds at your garage sales and thrift stores too :)
Well what can I say but THANK YOU!! My sweet and "nice" friend Celee over at "Miscellaneous Musings of a 5x Mom" awarded me this very cute and quirky blog award. I have to totally agree with her answer that when it comes to whether I am Naughty or Nice, I would have to say that although I don't consider myself naughty (anymore at least), I do see my sin nature far too often to say I am nice. But I appreciate her words that she thinks I am none the less :)
Anyway, these are the questions I'm supposed to answer.
1. What is the silliest prank you ever played on someone?
Hummm well I've never been good at "silly" pranks. Mostly I just went along with the pranks being played around me, whether they be silly, tame, or really dangerous. I do however remember a time (under the tutelage of my sister) switching the sugar in the sugar shaker with salt and watching my much older half brother pour it in his coffee, take a drink, and then swear like a sailor. Good times good times.
2. If you could take a trip anywhere out of the country where would you go? Why?
Well i would have to start this out by being totally honest about my DEEP fear of flying. However if I could somehow telaport myself somewhere outside of the country and avoid the nightmarish event we simply label "flying", then I would definitely love to travel the middle east and visit Turkey and Israel. However Ireland is a very close second. I would love the rich history of the middle east and I would love to see our families genealogy played out in the land of Ireland.(OK were really not all that much Irish, but enough to see the heritage there)
3. Who plays the most influential role in your life?
Sometimes my husband, sometimes my friends, and sadly sometimes the world.
4. Are you ok with your significant other being friends with an ex?
No, not really....ummm yeah I almost certain that would be awwwwwwwwkward. Neither my husband nor I really keep in touch with many friends of the opposite sex. So thankfully we have not had to face that in recent years.
5. Favorite candle scent?
Anything that is usually put out in Fall and Winter. Pumpkin Spice, Caramel, Apple, Pie.
6. Next movie you're excited about seeing?
I have lost my excitement for most movies. A lot of movies are trash and filled with trash so I try not to get my hopes up. Maybe one day they will come out with an awesome family movie, that is clean (without naked bodies,swearing, blasphemy, or intense gore)and actually has good acting. THEN I will get excited.
7. You must ban one word from the dictionary and all usage, to be no longer uttered or written. What word do you ban?
I would like for people not to take the Lord's name in vain. And I don't like it when people use vulgar words. However, I wouldn't ban any words from the dictionary. The problem is not with the words, but with the people who mis-use them. (I stole this answer from Celee, because it is exactly as I would have answered)
8. Do you have any relatives in jail?
I'm sure I do. I have such a large extended family that you really can never tell ;)
9. What crazy fads were popular when you were a teenager?
All sorts of randomness happened in the late nineties, however in my private catholic school, we wore uniforms, so our fads came in form of socks and shoes. which for me and my friends was converse all stars with tall gym socks that went to the knee and two colored stripes at the top. That's pretty much what we wore everyday with our pleated skirts and button up shirts. (I know we were too cool.....not)
10. Have you ever been mentioned in a newspaper or on TV?
Yes. I was interviewed by several news reporters when my neighbor killed his wife and shot himself. Apparently a young teen just home from school, standing next to the yellow crime tape is perfect for getting to answer questions on camera. It was crazy the next day at school all kinds of kids walked by me and said "I saw you on the news!". I just remember thinking to myself "Well that's embarrassing, I didn't think teens watched the news!"
I'm supposed to pass this award on to 10 of my blogging friends unless I'm feeling naughty- in that case I can just pass it on to 5.
These ladies are definitely NICE.
It's your turn...
Julie at "All things Sunshiney"
Becky at "Adventures with the Ames"
Sandy at "Celebrating Life"
Mandy at "the life and times of Mandy mom"
Grace at "The Crouch family"
...to answer the above questions and pass along the award. Thanks for being a nice influence in my life!
comments.
If you have ever posted a comment and it never showed up, please email me at sgtswife03@yahoo.com and let me know. My blog dashboard does this weird thing when I go to my personal page. Sometimes it will say "you have 2 comments waiting to be moderated" and then I will click on it and it will say " you have no comments awaiting moderation". Then its gone. Then sometime later, like when I write the next post, it will say "you have one comment waiting to be moderated" then I click and it will say again that I have none. So I do not know if this is a glitch or something that is "eating" my comments from friends and family. I have had one person so far tell me they have commented and nothing ever happened. So I am curious to see if there's more, because I have never ever rejected a comment. So let me know will ya!
comments section
Hello beautiful people! Just wanted to let you know something really quick about the layout of my blog. MOST blogs have a comment button on the bottom of their post. My blog however, has the "comment" button on the top right hand side of my post directly under my title....do you see it? Anyhow, I have had some family ask who were confused, and some sweet friends of mine were leaving comments in posts which I believed belonged to the post above it. Just something I thought I would point out. So if you would like to leave a comment, just click on the comment button on the upper right side of the post directly below the title. :)
Have a super blessed day!
p.s. I am torn between two posts. I want to continue my "modesty" posts, which I am so passionate about. However we have had some changes in my home lately, so I think I may post about that once. Then I will get back in to the post I promised about, "Kids are....plants".
Security filters confuse me.
OH wow, OK, I am ashamed to admit this, but I am a blogger with probably the LEAST amount of computer knowledge of any out there. My husband has been asking me to take a computer class for years, just so he does not have to hear "HONEY!! can you help me with this thing again??". Poor man. Where was I?? OH yeah, so we got a new computer this week so that my daughter could do her new school program (Switched on Schoolhouse, which we LOVE, but that's another post ;)
So this is the first time my kids (and just being old enough now to work them) have access to a computer with internet. So we installed the BeSecure (cloud care) Internet security filter just in case. When you buy it, it says you can go ahead and put it on all your computers for no extra charge. So my hubby and I say "why not?". Well it was SUCH A GOOD FILTER I could not access blogger ALL week. It took me TWO days just to figure out how to be able to still do Swagbucks (don't know what swagbucks is?? YET another blog post to come). So finally today, I swallowed my pride and called the help line. I admitted that I am totally inept, and they helped me fix it so that it wasn't on ULTIMATE filter, which was my first problem. My second problem of course being that I have the technology sense of a squirrel.
Anyhow.....I am "on again" and can't wait to get back to it! Soo much goodness floating around in my head that I can't wait to blog about. But then again, it will take me two days just to catch up on all my favorite blogs first :)
Our Trip.
First of all, before I tell you how awesome our trip was, let me explain how non-awesome our first three days were and why I asked for prayer. First please look at our driving conditions that appeared OVER NIGHT before we left. Friday was 70 degrees, we woke up Saturday AM to leave and found the road conditions to be this....
Did you happen to notice the ice that covered the road?? or how about the zero visability?? We saw at least ten cars in the ditch, however that didn't seem to be a deterrent to crazy drivers whizzing past us, staring us down like we were idiotic to dare drive forty (even in those conditions). I kid you not, we so both cars who zoomed by us, in a ditch 10 miles later.
So we never made it to Colorado Springs that day. We made it to Amarillo Texas. We were on the 40 when we saw a taxi spin out in front of two semi-trucks. It was not pretty and we made the collective decision that Colorado was not worth our lives. So we stopped. Which meant we were not going to get to go to Colorado Springs for my grandma's birthday. See we had planned to go to Colorado Springs for a day and a half to visit my grandma with my family, then me, my hubby and kids, mom and my brother and his wife and kids were supposed to drive all together down to Durango to spend the remainder of the time there. So we new once we stopped in Amarillo that we were not going to be able to meet them up there. So we only drove to Albuquerque the next day. Then the day after that we went on to Durango Colorado.
To say the first three days were stressful would kind of be an understatement. There is nothing like having your life at risk, hotel stays, car trips, and your plans going awry, to make you all a little cranky. My husband and I had it out a few times like we were back to being 19 again. We just both felt heavy burdens that for some reason or another we hung on to, instead of letting go. But in the end...we made it through. We reconciled, apologized,prayed, kissed and made up, and then we were even able to enjoy the rest of the trip. YAY!! Another point for us! No points for you Satan...sorry :)
Anyhow....this is a little piece of God's majesty that I got to enjoy once we FINALLY got there...
Kind of nice huh? Well, we definitely enjoyed it. We did fun things, but my favorite part, by far, was the view. Those mountains really are breathtaking....or was that the altitude?? Either way, here are some more cute pics of my family...
Well I hate to end this update so short (ha!) but I need to go love on the husband for a bit, so he doesn't get too lonely :)
Before I go though, I would love to send a shout out to Celee at Miscellaneous Musings of a 5x Mom. She was so gracious to open her home to us on our trip back. I cannot tell you the difference it made in our trip. Instead of an expensive cold hotel room with nothing to do but watch T.V., we got to stay with like minded Christians who fed us two hot meals, charged us nothing, stayed up late to talk with us, made our beds ready, and let the kids play with EVERYTHING. It was awesome. They are wonderful people and I was so glad to meet them. Here is my poem for Celee...
Your food was yummy
It filled our tummy
Your house was a delight
I am glad I stayed the night
It cost us no money
And you husband is too funny!
I never said it would be a good poem... lol
Thrift store finds!
I love thrift stores. It started when I was teenager in southern California trying to find fun and "interesting" clothes for my my very specific fashion wants. For instance one of my very favorite shirts was my "He-Man and the Masters" shirt. I wore it all the time. It was a little boys shirt and I was teen girl, so you can only imagine, I was not a very modest teen. My son now wears the shirt to bed, which just makes my husband and I laugh.
Anyhow, my love for thrift stores has now carried into my adult life. My frugal budget of course loves thrift stores. However, nowadays I am not really looking for fashion as much as I am looking for your average household needs. Some things I have found recently have been very helpful finds.
As you can see below, my kids found Legos out our local Goodwill for 1 dollar! Why is that a big deal you say?? For one, my kids are obsessed with Legos. Secondly, that particular box of Legos runs about 25 dollars. Thirdly, it was in perfect condition with most of the parts still in their individual bags. It was an awesome day in our household when we found that. Check out what my daughter built with it.....pretty cool huh?!?
Another awesome thrift store find lately has been "Addition Bingo". For a buck forty nine, it has added tons of fun filled learning in our house. And "fun" learning is always good learning in a homeschool family. :)
The last thing I want to show you is my new purse. I have a tendency to throw everything under heaven in my purse. Finding my keys in my purse while trying to get into the car and out of the cold weather is my daily enemy. So I finally bought a purse to end my battles. I had not purchased a purse in 2 years, so it was a pretty cool day. At only 2 dollars, why not?? This purse has a sum total of six pockets, now I "have a place for everything and everything in its place" :)
GREAT DEAL!!
Are you like me and have hundreds of digital prints sitting in your computer and NOT in a photo album or scrapbook???? Well today I think I have used one of THE best deals ever for prints. BUT it expires TODAY!!!! So go to www.shutterfly.com sign up (its free) upload your prints (do a lot of them) and then when you got to checkout go to the coupon code box and put in "75free" (without the quotation marks). It will then give you 75 of your prints for FREE!! That is not all, after that coupon code has applied, then go to that same coupon code box and put in "shipprints" and it will take off the $9.99 charge for shipping. So not only are you getting 75 FREE prints, but also FREE shipping! you just can't beat that. Also shutterfly is always free to use. There is no minimum amount to use, but obviously use at least 75 so you can get them all free. I uploaded 155 and ordered them. I got 75 of them free and free shipping, so my total for 155 pictures delivered to my door is a whopping 12 dollars! hurry up!!!
hope you guys check this before it expires, I would have warned you sooner, but I just got to some of my old emails that have been waiting there lonely in my inbox to be checked. :)
ICE STORM!
Check out our crazy ice storm. no fun. These are pictures of our trees at our rental. The one that is completely split is in our neighbors yard, right next to our house. The other picture is of our GI-NORMOUS tree in our front yard. It is lingering above our roof and cars, so we are kind of on pins and needles. Every creak makes us jump. We hear a lot of those too because trees are breaking all over the place. Have I mentioned that I cannot wait until Spring???
OK now I am off to listen to my handsome hubby play his guitar---rarrrrrrr (that rarrrr was my attempt to make the sexy growling sound...ha)
so busy...... with lots of blessings!
I swear, if I am able to type out a post any longer than four sentences this month I will be happily shocked. I thought this month would be my slowest month ever, being that I JUST moved, hardly know anyone, don't have a formal schedule, and its so stinking cold nobody is doing anything. But hey I was wrong. I am having a wonderfully busy time playing catch up with homeschooling, organizing my new rental, getting the kids appointments to see the dentist and optometrist, meeting some women in the homeschool group, joining a small group at my church, reading my bible in the 90 day challenge cooking, snuggling kiddos, filling out adoption paper work, cleaning, blah blah blah. I am loving it though! I love being productive. It feels great. Don't get me wrong, I love relaxation too, but you never have to worry about me becoming a workaholic or anything, I am far to bent towards laziness for that :)
Anywho, the point of this post is this, I wish I were posting about things I am passionate about, like Celee at Miscellaneous Musings on the topic of the Family integrated church, or Tara at Too Many Kids in The Bathtub and her Journey to becoming a Godly wife. Also I am LOVE LOVE LOVING McMamma's series on authentic and honest blogging.
But alas, I am throwing things together the best I can. For now all I can off is my love to you all and how you are all encouraging me to be my best.
Blog posts to come SOON :)
*Purity: How can we teach it to our daughters and sons in ways that stick.
*Discipleship: How it's different from fellowship.
*The Plight of the Orphan: What are we called to do?
*Disciple of Christ: What does it REALLY look like.
These are things I am passionate about (among other things). Can't wait to start the discussion
xoxox
Valerie
Sandwiched.
I named this post "Sandwiched" because that is precisely how I am describing our car accident yesterday. Our poor minivan (and us too!) were sandwiched in between two trucks. We were pulling up to a light behind a truck (I am thinking an f250 or something of the like), just as were had come to a stop I looked in the review mirror and saw how fast the truck behind us was headed our way. I said out loud "Oh God that guy is not going to stop", just then I (dummy!!) turned my head around and watched him slam into us. Well I did not watch for long as we were hit so hard we were driven feet ahead and into the truck in front of us. When it all stopped the kids were screaming so loud I was certain they must have been hurt. But after a few seconds of consoling I realized they were probably more scared than anything. Within seconds my husband and I joined hands and trembled through a prayer begging God to let us be alright. Just after that I realized my head felt dizzy and was throbbing in my forehead near my right eye. I looked at my hubby and said "babe, babe, I hit my head, I hit head" He was out and checking on the kids and looked at me, more scared than I have ever seen him. He was consoling his two screaming kids, and looking at a wife who had a huge knot on her face. At that point I knew my neck hurt really bad, and I had no idea how I hit my head, or what I hit it on. The ambulance and fire and police came so fast. They ended up putting my neck in a collar and me on a gurney. I asked if my daughter could come with me (she has some attachment issues and is always scared to leave me), they said yes and loaded me and her into the ambulance. It was really scary but as we rode to the hospital I knew I would be OK. I had figured out that my bump on my head hurt like heck, but it was minor, and my neck hurt really bad, but I was sure it was just whiplash and nothing broken. They took x-rays and said I was OK. My husband arrived at the hospital and looked so heartsick it made me cry. He just wanted to help all of us and didn't know how. He just kept holding the kids and me and telling us he loved us. It was scary and precious at the same time. God was so with us. The accident could have caused us much more serious injuries. As for me I am getting further checked out tomorrow for whiplash and my bump on my face (which feels like to me might have busted or injured my sinus cavity. My neck hurts, but I know my body will heal. I also have a minor bruise where the seat belt grabbed me at the chest. As for my children, my daughter has a hurt head where something (we can't figure out what) struck her in the back of the head. She has a big bump where it struck her and it is quite bruised. She also has a strained rib or something. her ribs hurt when she moves too much (she also is being checked out tomorrow), but she has been OK enough to move around and do things, so I don't believe it's serious, but who knows. My son seems completely fine. He complains of no pain at all. God was with us for sure. My husband seems to have injured knees and probably has whiplash also. We are not a fun bunch to be around right now because all we say all day is "ouchie ouchie, that hurt" or "owwwwww! I forgot that bump was there".
What I have to say about it all, is this, God is good ALL the time. He protected us for sure. It should have been much worse. Also, our spirits are high. We are filled with His peace and are very thankful that we are OK. Good thing God taught me about bitterness BEFORE this all happened, huh? His timing is perfect. Had I still been bitter about all the other stuff I would have just added this to my list. That would have been ugly. Yesterday we also found it important to pray and ask God to bless the man who hit us. We knew we had to forgive him and not only that but speak blessings over him (in accordance with scripture). It was so good to do, and such an awesome lesson for the kids. All in all, we are good. I am in pain, and I still see the truck hitting us every time I close my eyes, but I know those things will fade. The miracle of feeling God's closeness during this time will not. Praise be to Him from whom all blessings flow.
Moved!
Settled at last.
To be finally settled and not totally living in transition feels amazing. To be sure, I have not totally unpacked yet, we still have plenty of boxes and home school shelves waiting for me, and yes we are still eating out more than eating in, until we rebuild our pantry and fridge with food. But still, there is something to be said for having mirrors and paintings on the wall and clothes hung up in the closets. It is starting to feel like home. Home. Strange for me even to say. I had grown so fond of my “home” in Arkansas, I would have never dreamed calling a rental is some random city in Oklahoma “home”. But I guess it is true what they say, home is where your heart is. Or where Husband and children are. :)
We just got Internet the other day so I am spending a lot of time catching up on emails and facebook bills. I can’t wait to have a free moment soon tonight to catch up on blog world. You all inspire me to be better, with how I have been acting lately, I could use it!
Pictures to come! This time I wont promise, but I will say that I have a distinct feeling I will be getting a camera for Christmas :)
I will be back soon with lots of posts on all God is teaching me lately. (there have been some hard personal discoveries that God is weeding out of me. When it is a little less painful I will write all about it.)
Pictures here, pictures everywhere.
Here are some pictures from the road trip. It was long and hard, but we had a lot of fun. I always do on roadtrips. The glory of God shines through His creation, and His creation can truly be seen driving across this great country. Anyhow, enjoy! Right like that's really all you wanted for Christmas, was pictures from my roadtrip, ha ha ha. 
home for now.
I am home from my trip and the first thing I have to do is say......I lied. OK well actually I didn't lie, I mis-spoke. You see I thought I would have TONS of pictures for you when I got back, but actually I have none, since my husband wanted to keep the camera at home, and my dad only let me take pictures in the car. SOOOOOOOO when my dad lets me borrow his camera so I can download the pictures, then I will have pictures for you. Until then please forgive me for saying "I will post TONS of pictures as soon as I get back!". My bad.
So I am home from my trip, but not for long since we are moving on Monday. Never mind that this is the third time we have said we are moving. It is kind of frustrating to think you are going to move mid-November, box up your stuff, have your hubby quit his current job, find a rental, sign a lease agreement in a new state, turn on utilities and internet, ONLY to find out you cant actually move till late November, only to find out you can't move till December, only to find out that you don't know when they will pay you to move so you finally make the decision to pay the hundreds of dollars to move yourselves just to be over the craziness! Oh look there I go venting and complaining again.......but hey, that's what the blog is for right? No? OK well maybe not, but I am incapable of typing anything else. I am surrounded by boxes, so moving seems to stay heavy on my mind.
Now I am off to read all your wonderful, uplifting, holiday cheer spreading, hilarious blogs! Just disregard mine and come back in a week, I am sure I will be a more gracious blog host :)
California Dreamin
I am in California visiting family on a last minute (truly only knew 48 hours before I left) Thanksgiving visit. Things are going so badly with our move and waiting for orders so that we CAN move, that my husband told me and the kids to go visit my family because he felt so bad. Gotta love that guy! So, even though I am missing my hubby, and the drive was two days and relentless, I am loving being here in California. I will update you all soon with TONS of pictures when I get back. xoxoxo
(p.s. Celee I drove right past your area and was tempted to stop and say hi. But my dad, who was riding with us, said no :( Maybe I will honk on my way home really loud and you will know its me)
A dying breed.
We did this project for Jacob's math. It involved making a graph of all the different hair colors in your family. It was so easy and fun, any kindergartner would enjoy it. Would you believe in all my family we only have ONE blond? Poor Auntie Jamie :(
side note: you can also do this graph with pictures. Just cut out pictures of that persons face (which of course includes their hair), and put them on the graph like I did with the pieces of colored construction paper.
side note #2: Yes my daughter is in her pajamas, we are homeschoolers, what can I say? And YES she is posing instead of my kindergartner because she LOVES having her picture taken. ;)
Mislead
Things these days are misleading, there is no doubt about it. I personally have been mislead many times. I don't like the feeling of it. The most dangerous kind of misleading though happens within the church body. I was a HUGE fan of an online church until tonight. The pastor was biblical and spot on. Of course as with ANYONE we did not see eye to eye on everything, but those things were "gray area" things. However tonight I was watching one of his sermons online and he had a guest speaker. A man who he praised for being an amazing pastor and a personal influence in his life. I listened as this man began to speak, I had great anticipation for the message he would bring. The message He brought however left a bad taste in my mouth, and a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. To sum it up, he used Acts 15, in which there was great discussion going on about putting a heavy yoke upon the gentile believers by telling them they must be circumcised and obey the laws of Moses, or they were not saved. So the discussion in Acts continues until finally James makes the command, after listening to Paul and Barnabas, that the gentile believers should not have to have stumbling blocks, such as circumcision and total obedience to laws, put in there walk with Christ. The "guest speaker" then goes on to say, and I am totally being honest, that the cross of Christ and even Jesus himself, is a stumbling block to some people in church and should not be put upon them so that they can continue to draw closer to God. UMMMMMMMM we CANNOT draw closer to God without CHRIST!!!!!! wow, I am totally upset about this. He, this pastor, also says that churches need to be open to every single person because the gospel is for everyone. Even those who hate Christ, should be welcomed and NOT offended by having Crosses up and such.
POINT #1 In Acts 15 they were talking about putting a yoke on those ALREADY saved. Not on the unsaved "seekers".
POINT #2 The "Church" is not a building, it is a gathering of BELIEVERS. True, the gospel is for everyone, the entire world actually. But the Church is the body of Christ, comprised of his followers, his believers. We bare no responsibility in making Christs body, our church, seeker friendly to those who hate Jesus.
POINT #3 IF you remove Jesus and his Cross, because he is a stumbling block on their way to God, you have then just removed THEIR ONLY WAY to God. Jesus said I am the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE. If people are offended by Jesus, and/or the cross, then they need to be at home in prayer, or reading their bibles, and listening to God who is drawing them to Christ, not IN CHURCH!
POINT#4 It is the job of God, via the Holy Spirit, to draw people to God, using whatever means He deems necessary, including, but not limited to, our lives as Christians, our mouths, and God's Word. It is not the job of the church to have the right atmosphere, of non offensive wall decor, or music, in order to make people comfortable with God.
POINT#5 To be perfectly clear, I would NEVER turn away a person who wants to be in church to learn more. However, I would never change, worship or doctrine, to better suit the unbeliever, in doing so making myself believe that somehow that might help give them a "leg up" to Christ.
A note of apology.
I am sorry, number one if this was written in a way that has offended anyone. I do not apologize for my content, but if it is written in rude way, I apologize. But most importantly I apologize for having the link to this "online church" on my blog. I truly hope I have not played a role in the misleading of any new believer. I am praying for the pastor of it, whom I still love, and know has a heart for God. I am very concerned about this pastor whom he watches and learns from though. Tonight I am praying for them both,and all the thousands of people who attend these campuses and watch online.
STOCKINGS!!
Are we too early to be talking about stockings???? Well, some say yes some say no. To me, it is not too early to be talking about MAKING stocking because it will take me that long to do any project!!! lol
Anyhow, join this blog in her attempts to make HANDMADE Christmas stuff. I LOVE the stocking idea that I linked you to. I am definitely going to do it.
ENJOY!
