Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Colored Chickens

Here are some cute pics of the kids and their cousins. Check out those colored chicks:



Sunday, March 16, 2008

Heavy thoughts needing rest

It has been a long work week for me. Six days in a row and i finally got a couple of days off. The kids got back from their gram and pops and they were asleep when i got home tonight. i had to go into their rooms and look at them. i missed them even though they were only gone for a few days. Baby chloe stayed with us and she gobbled up the love of both her parents. The three of us went to Red Robin last night for dinner and the nice waitress told us that one day we would get really good at eating with one hand. She said this because mickie was holding chloe as she ate her dinner. we bothed laughed knowing that we had learned that lesson six years ago with Abigail.

It is strange to think that we have been parents for six years now and i wonder where the time went. It is as if time doubled or even tripled in speed once we had children. Years go by like days and yet i can recall less about the past than i would like to. i was listening to a derek webb cd, "The Ringing Bell" today on my way home and was hit full force by a fact that our lives if not lived for the right reasons are a waste.

He sings: "They say we are just trying to stay alive, but it looks more like a way to die." i wonder how much our lives look like this? i started to think that just "existing" is really just a miserable way to die while living. No chance of going in reverse during this life. Yesterday is gone, today is here, and tomorrow has enough trouble on its own. This world is full of people finding different ways to die. They die with toys, houses, money, fame, acceptance, being right, feelings, and a whole host of facades.

May we never settle for "existence", but push onward into the upward calling of Christ. Tomorrow do not just exist, but live. And life is only found in Yeshua because He came to give us life and life abundant. Not existence, but life!

The worse thing would be to get to the end of your life and find out you missed it; you missed the point of God forming you in your mother's womb, counting the hairs on your hand, and breathing His breath in you so that you could glorify Him through a relationship with Him. Life is only found in God and anything else is just another way to die.

Shalom!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Well needed time off

Well, we finally got some well-needed family time this weekend. i scored a three day weekend and enjoyed many naps with Luke and baby Chloe. Today was great as Abigail excelled in playing catch with a football. She even got hit in the face and it didn't phase her. Momma was proud as she is extremely scared of catching a ball in the face and thus avoids all such games. We enjoyed some evening wrestle time and if you have not played horse with three children on your back, you have not lived. Going to see the chiropractor soon!!

Church at the village is great and we are looking to join a small group or start one for those that commute from Fort Worth. After that we are going to join the Village as Covenant Partners. The kids are looking forward to seeing their Gram and Pops this weekend and Abigail is jazzed about looking for fossils as she will be spending some time in Austin with her grandparents. I am going to try and make Jame's confirmation the following weekend. And if i am correct, he and some others are planning to join us here to celebrate the Passover Seder in April.

Here are some new pictures of the kids:








Saturday, March 1, 2008

We love cause He loved us

Psalm 9:9-11
9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name will trust in you,

for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.
11 Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion;

proclaim among the nations what he has done.

As i was driving to work today, i was listening to Matt Redman's song God of our Yesterdays and he has a bridge where he quotes this Psalm about how we can trust God cause we know His name. We can trust Him because He is faithful when all are not. We can trust Him because He has been, is , and will forever be.

Praise be to Elohim, the mighty, mighty God of all the nations; the unwavering giver of good and the Father of Lights. You are worthy O' LORD of our Fathers and their sons and daughters. You are worthy of our days, minutes, and seconds. Every breath should utter praise to You.


Have you ever felt the love of God so strong that you are compelled to share as if you would burst if you did not? Today was one of those days. i know what John meant when he wrote that we love because He first loved us. Man, what an overwhelming feeling God's love is when it comes on you like a breaking wave. When we are with Him for eternity, how amazing it will be to drink in His love, shaken, pressed down, and over flowing the measure.

It has not been a particularly spiritual time for our family as my work duties have increased and my time at home has diminished. Seminary is a day to day struggle and one day is never like the next.

Our kids are amazing! My bride is amazing! Abigail has learned how to read and she is devouring her kids Bible. Praise God for His mercy in extending grace to her six year old body. The kids absolutely love Shabbat and they get very serious when the blessings are done. mickie says it is funny to watch them dance around when Shabbat Shalom is playing. They love the Challah bread and the Grape Juice that symbolize communion and the bread and wine or Christ.

What an amazing blessing Shabbat has been. my family has been learning so much from Torah and to see them taking joy in celebrating communion as such a young age is joy. Yeshua said:

Matthew 18:2-4
2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
3 and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.


Yeshua says that whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom. What did that child do? What exactly was Yeshua praising this child for? i wonder if it was not his complete trust in Yeshua? Maybe he had never even met our LORD before and here Yeshua was beckoning him to come forth and be a part of a teaching for the generations. i imagine that the child without hesitation walked into Yeshua's loving arms. That is what we must do to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven; walk in faith into the loving arms of Christ.

i pray that my family walks in faith right into the loving arms of Christ. Father, i ask for mercy and grace to lead my family into the loving arms of Your Son. i pray that same blessing for all that we know and love. May you grant them grace and faith. Father use us to bless Your name. Here we are LORD, send us!!!