Listening to the Call for your Life

Recently, I have had a new analogy for myself. It was a way to make Reson know just how much I valued the words of a wonderful sound Christian man Francis Chan is. Francis Chan is to me, what John Piper is to Mitch Landress. He is our pastor, and he loves John Piper. I have been a fan of Chan since Mitch's wife taught about his book "Crazy Love," however God has used him recently for my desire to find God's will in my life.
For Reson, he is trying to figure me out. I feel bad for him. My theme song at the moment, and probably the ENTIRE album, but I will put it down to one for the moment. It's Casting Crowns' "Until the Whole World Hears" album, the song is "To Know You."

To know you is never worry for my life, and
To know you is to never to give in or compromise
To know you is to want to tell the world about you
Cause I can't live without you

To know you is to hear your voice when you are calling
To know you is to catch my brother when he is falling
To know you is to feel the pain of the broken hearted
Cause they can't live with out you.

More than my next breath
More than life or death
All reaching for, I live my life to know you more
I leave it all behind, you are all that satisfies
To know you is to want to know you more
To know you is to want to know you more

To know you is to ache for more than ordinary
To know you is to look beyond the temporary
To know you is believing that you will be enough
Cause there is no life without you

More than my next breath
More than life or death
All reaching for, I live my life to know you more
I leave it all behind, you are all that satisfies
To know you is to want to know you more
To know you is to want to know you more

All this life could offer me, could not compare to you
Compare to you
And I count it all as lost, compared to knowing you
Knowing you

More than my next breath
More than life or death
All reaching for, I live my life to know you more
I leave it all behind, you are all that satisfies
To know you is to want to know you more
To know you is to want to know you more

Compared to you
Compared to you
And I count it all as lost, compared to knowing you
Knowing you
And I count it all as lost, compared to knowing you
Knowing you

Daily has been a challenge for to get to know God more, and what he wants for my life. The Lord has had some burning issues with me lately, and I know what they are. I'm not sure that I have been following what he wants. I have to be clear that I feel that I am doing what he wants from me, but HE WANTS MORE OUT OF ME! I think he wants that more out of everyone, but many of us ignore it!
I don't want to ignore it, I HATE ignoring it, but I don't know how to pursue what he wants for me.

You see, God was working on this conviction way before I knew he was going to. He started with embedding my family heritage in ministry. My grandfather a minister, and my grandmother a missionary. Then, about a month ago, I pushed some Youth curriculum to Reson, he ordered it. We watched a Francis Chan video in it, and I was floored. It was the battle God was putting in my heart. It's an emotional thing really. Reson was witnessing through Francis' video, MY battle. How frightening, for someone else to visual see this! I wanted to keep it a secret. I still tried after this, but then God hit me with another video. It was through another friend's blog...

I had to tell Reson. I have to do something in missions, and not just any missions. For some reason, God keeps throwing out Foreign missions. My mom asked, Why Foreign missions? I don't know. I just know that God has been throwing it at me, and I just feel that is the mission he has for me.
Francis was talking about not living comfortable and safe, to not hold onto the balance beam in our life performance, that when we sit on the beach with our little coffee and our Bible opened, there is WHOLE lost world out there that don't get this experience. OUCH!
He has downgraded his living, and recently announced that he needs to leave his church that he has been comfortably pastoring for 16 years!

Reson asked if a week or two on a trip would satisfy my urge, my craving... or will it just fuel it? I don't know, but I do know this... I want to know God on whole other level, I want Him to be enough, that nothing compares to Him that all other things are lost. I want need to step out and do some "crazy love" stuff. My problem comes in having the finances and opportunities. As Casting Crowns says in "At Your Feet," "Here at your feet, I lay my future down, all of my dreams, I give to you now, and I find peace!"

I'm listening God, when the door opens may my eyes stay clear focused on your call for my life!
Yikes, I just wrote all this for someone else to read.

"Breaking Bread like Jesus"

We have been bringing Luk into the church service with us for a month or so, now. He misses being in the nursery, but it was time that he moved into the big service. Well, it is with this transition that I have learned many lessons have to be taught. Our wonderful pastor was preaching on John 6 and how the disciples were grumbling about following Jesus. He went into how we are to follow Christ through all things, but could something happen to make you up and walk away from Him. In this he mentioned, Jesus was the "bread of life" and how Jesus mentioned the drinking of his blood. Yep... Luk takes his shoulder off of Reson, looks at me, and says, "Jesus wants us to drink his blood!" Yep. Good times. I whispered in his ear that Jesus did not mean that we are to really drink his blood, but that Jesus died on the cross for our sin. We need to know that his blood needs to be in our lives to go to Heaven.
It was through this topic that I decided I needed to talk to Luk about the Lord's Supper that we will be partaking in this Sunday.

So, I made an activity day out of it. Luk and I made bread. Before, we did this, I shared with him the story of Jesus and his disciples sharing their "Special Meal." Then, I showed him how the cook book worked and the ingredients.

Salt, shortening, yeast, very warm water, flour, mix, kneading, set to rise.

The dough rises double, cut in half flatten, roll up tight, put into a loaf pan, set to rise again, butter the loaf ("painting" as Luk says), bake. Luk loved seeing the finished product.
I was proud. This was my first time making bread (and not with a bread maker machine), and it turned out great! The same day I set to make a Pot Roast on the Slow Cooker, and it was quite yummy.

Once the table was set, and Reson got home he read the story of the "Special Meal" with Luk again. We taught him to eat bread remembering Jesus' body dying on the cross, and that the juice represents the blood he shed for us. It was a special moment! Luk told me today, "Mom, I have Jesus in my heart. Does Jack Sparrow have Jesus in his heart?" I replied, "Only Jack knows if he has Jesus in his heart." Luk retorted, "Well, I do!" It was a special conversation, and it brought a true happiness in my heart.

Here is our family communion...

I also had Luk make a mini book on the Lord's Supper. "The Special Meal" Luk put the food on the plate, a puzzle of a picture of Jesus with his friends, the 12 disciples, and "What else starts with..." C (for cup), B (for bread), and F (for fish).

All in All, this week has been a blessing to say the least.

The Best Weekend Ever!

I find it humorous just how the simply things in life really create the best day with my family. We had decided in the middle of the week that we were going to take Luk to the beach. He had been wanting to go for awhile, but we have been jammed pack with events and fundraisers for our Youth group. It was a time for family that was well needed. It very quickly became one of the best days Reson and I have ever had. When you look at it from afar it would seem that anything but great. We started the day an hour behind and headed to the beach. It is usually only a 45 minute drive, however it took us nearly 2 hours to get there. The traffic was pretty bad.
Surprisingly, both the boys were awesome during this wait. Reson and I got a great dose of worship time with each other. We talked about God and the things He has done in our lives. We listened to the wonderful Casting Crowns album "Until the Whole World Hears." After going to the concert, we have been listening to it, and after a couple of listens the song "At your feet" really hit our hearts.

Here at Your feet, I lay my past down
My wanderings, all my mistakes down
And I am free

Here at Your feet, I lay this day down
Not in my strength, but in Yours I've found
All I need, You're all I need

Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet
Oh, to dwell and never leave
Jesus, Jesus, at Your feet
There is nowhere else for me
There is nowhere else for me

Here at Your feet, I lay my future down
All of my dreams, I give to You now
And I find peace, I find peace
Here at Your feet, I lay my life down
For You my King, You're all I want now
And my soul sings…

‘Cause I am free (here at Your feet)
All I need (is at Your feet)
I find peace
We're at Your feet
We're at Your feet

And I am free (here at Your feet)
All I need (is at Your feet)
I find peace
We're at Your feet
We're at Your feet
We're at Your feet
We're at Your feet

Here at Your feet
I lay my life down

That's some good stuff. I have to say that Mark Hall and the 

band are phenomenal writers. Reson and I truly enjoyed getting 

this time together. 

Here are the photos to our best day ever.

Reson's sister and husband came with us.

Reson's favorite car

Our day started with a long worshipful car ride, beach time, 

shopping at one of my favorite places Whole Foods Market, 

Sam's club, and Ice Cream.

Then on Sunday after a wonderful time at church, we had a 

picnic and tried flying Luk's kite. The wind was off and on, 

but Luk was able to see it fly for a short time. 

The best weekend ever with my boys and best friend! 

Thank you Lord for all the praises you have given our family!

Easter Twenty-Ten Continued

I showed you the spiritual aspect of our wonderful Easter, but I forgot to post our family photos. It was really a beautiful day, and it was great to get some family pictures. Logan was not the happiest baby, but I take pictures and as long as he isn't crying, I'm okay with that. =) Here they are, enjoy...

Daddy's Boy: He loves his daddy!

This picture shows the boys' personas:

Logan: the Clinger; Luk: Mr. Independent

Love the life God has blessed us with!

My Best Friend

Luk loving on Logan after a long day.

Logan's precious feet

Hmm... what is Luk going to do with that Frog?

What a big brother should do, mount it on Logan's head.

Yep, it was the best Easter!

Easter Twenty-Ten

It was a wonderful Easter. The Lord gave me the blessing of singing a song for the congregation, and we were able to just spend the day with our boys. It has been very fun having Logan's first holidays this year. Luk is teaching Logan all that he needs to know, and will probably do the same thing next year.

Our lovely pastor's wife posted about their family "Holy Week," and I decided to do one of the activities that she mentioned in her blog. We created our own tomb for the Resurrection of Christ. Gregory was in town, so he got in on the fun. Neither one of them liked making the play dough. They don't like sticky fingers!

 Then it was time to bake the play dough for the boys to paint...

Sunday was a beautiful day, which ended with Luk giving us a sermon of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. He has become quite the preacher.  The funny thing was that Luk did not use this tomb to tell his story. He decided to use a used Orange Crush bottle and a Mechanical Pencil to represent the tomb and Christ. I know that God has something really special for Luk's talent and need to "teach" people what he knows. It is really a beautiful thing. It has really put me homeschooling him into perspective because what I teach him, he wants to tell everyone his new found knowledge.

We are truly blessed.