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Wednesday, October 15, 2008

With Love from Us

I realize I haven't been posting much lately...believe me when I tell you that I long for the day when I feel up to it again. I'm learning so much from the Word right now, SO MUCH! I wish like anything that I had the energy to sit and share it all with you.

HEY! Here's an idea...why don't YOU share with me instead?! How about if you post in the comments section and tell me what you've been learning from God's Word?

OH! What an encouragement that would be...to read that you all are studying and growing in the knowledge of the Lord and His Word! It would be a super get-well soon gift to me! The best, actually!

I thought I'd post some pictures...my friend Shelly tells me that she can't see our picture very well, so maybe this will help, Ms. Shelly. :)

For all of you who are going to the Women's Conference this weekend..have a wonderful time! Give lots of big hugs to everyone for me! Wish I could be there with you...I'd love to see my sweet friends whom I've "met" via this blog..one is traveling all the way from South Africa!

Love you all!

Here we go....

Serious girls:




Silly girls:

I can't BELIEVE that Brennan can do that with her eyes! She must have inherited a trait from my family, because she can also look straight ahead with one eye, all the while moving the other from left to right. (My brother can do this, and so could my mother's father....made for good story telling!) Ugh! Makes my eyes hurt just thinking about it!

She was so cute the morning this picture was taken...it was cold here in the desert, and she wanted to wear this little dress with stockings, boots, and pigtails..so she could be like Laura Ingall's Wilder....I kept calling her "Half Pint"..she just giggled and giggled.

I love this little dress...it has beautiful smocking all around the bodice...so precious! 

Have a super day!
Jes

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Have You Blessed Your Pastor Today?

Tonight Shane and I had the great priviledge of meeting with our new pastor to share our testimonies and be considered for membership in our new church.

As I sat there with my beloved, across from this pastor for whom I prayed, I was awash with thanksgiving to the Lord.

Since coming to Arizona, we have had the opportunity to be in many churches, in our search for home. I can look back at the time that God had us in each of them, and can see His hand in all of our searching. 

Yet, I still kept longing for home. I think you just know it when you find your church home...and while we'd met some PRECIOUS people of God, and even heard some great sermons, we just were not home.

I spent HOURS on my face before God BEGGING Him for our home church...PLEADING with Him to raise up a Bible church in our area. CRYING out to Him for a church that wouldn't dumb down the Word for our kids, that would welcome family worship, that would not exclude our children from communion, and that would teach us the Word of God in Spirit and in Truth. 

Oh, I have to admit, I also prayed that the church would be close enough to our home that we could be a true part of it, and that it wouldn't have 1,000s upon 1,000s of members. (personal preference)

I truly can see His hand in every place He had us over the past 5 years...and I can even see His timing in why we had to wait so long to find home. I know He's sovereign. I know He had a plan in everything.

Yet, I have to say...it's good to be home! :)

It's good to know that we're where God has ordained for us to be. It's good to know that we're in a body of believers that is small enough that our gifts can be used to edify the body, and that we can get to know the fellow saints on a personal level.

It's good to see my children ecstatic about the thought of going to church!

And, it's exciting to me to know that both Shane and I will be able to learn TONS from our pastor, because he is a diligent student of the Word of God.

I made a comment to him tonight about how an idea I had might help with regard to marketing (that's my background)....and he gently corrected me..."Our focus is on the Kingdom. God will take care of the marketing. He'll bring the people."

Oooooooh! I knew that! I knew that!   

I hate it when I say stupid things! I especially hate it when I say stupid things that I knew better than to say. I think sometimes that my tongue has tennie shoes on....it runs so much faster than my brain does!

The only thing that I don't like about our new pastor (and I'd appreciate it if you not mention this to him) ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ .....................................................................................................................................................................................................is 





He's a Cowboy's fan!    (UGH!)  

 I wonder if he could be converted? 
Think I could get him to wear a cheese-head? :)


I might just have to keep my eyes open for one at Goodwill...could make a great Christmas present!

Oh...and that he talks faster than I can think! 

He's from Boston, and I'm from Texas....it's not that Texans ARE slow...it's just that we process slowly. ;)  Shane's only hope is that he's exceedingly smart...otherwise, he'd be hopeless due to the speed/processing issue...he is from Tennessee for goodness sake! (Do I have to explain this?)

So, I'm hoping that after sitting under our pastor's teaching for 6 months or so, I'll be quick as lightnin'! Brain sharp as a thunderclap! Faster than a speeding bullet! 
 (Hey! One can wish!)

If you have a Bible teaching, Kingdom focused pastor...I encourage you to ask the Lord how you might be able to bless him and his family this week. 

I know how tired I get just being a Bible study leader....and how much warfare I deal with. I can't begin to IMAGINE what truly Godly pastors have to deal with on a weekly, even daily basis! They need to have the saints lifting them up in prayer and serving them through good works.

How can you bless your pastor this week?

  • A meal?
  • A card?
  • Airline tickets for he and his wife?
  • Babysit his children?
  • Cut his grass?
  • Let him use your vacation home for a week of rest?
  • Pray for him? (You do this every week, right? Especially on Sat. nights and Sun. mornings!)
  • Treat him to lunch after church this Sunday?
  • What about simply telling him how much you appreciate his dedication to God's Word, and to his flock? That could mean so much to him...to know that his labor is not in vain.
OK...I was inspired to write this...inspired by an answer to a 5 year long plea before the Lord.

Hope you were encouraged.

Tomorrow, I'll write about Kings & Prophets. (Sorry I'm so late on it, Deb!)

Love you much....

Jes













Saturday, October 04, 2008

This is crazy!

Hi Faithful Blog Friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers over the past few months! They mean the world to me!

I've missed you, and am hoping to feel well enough to be posting again on a regular basis.

Here's a quick update....I'm seeing a new doctor, and she has finally diagnosed my ills from the past several months. I've had mono...and apparently this is what I've been fighting since May, or possibly even earlier than that.

I think the downhill spiral started this time last year when I had sinus surgery. I didn't realize what a tough surgery that is until my PCP said, "Didn't they tell you that it's one of the top 5 toughest surgeries on the body?!"

"Ugh. No, no one told me that." :(

All that to say....it's been a hard several months, but I'm starting to feel like I'm turning the corner. 

I had a vitamin IV yesterday..the 2nd in a series of 3...and I woke up this morning feeling like I could climb Mt. Rushmore. ( Would that land me in Lincoln's nostril, though? Maybe I'll pick a different mountain.)

When I came home from the IV last night, I said to Shane, "Honey..smell me! Smell my arms...or my knees...it doesn't matter...just smell me!"

He looked at me like I had lost it.

"Seriously! Smell me!"

He's such a good man...he just leaned in and sniffed away..... "OH MAN! YOU SMELL LIKE A VITAMIN!"

It was unreal....I had vitamin "juice" spilling from my pores.....it was crazy! Evidently there was something like 50,000 IU of vitamin C in the IV my doctor gave me...and that doesn't even include the B vitamins. I smelled like a Shaklee factory!

So...I digress....on to something more exciting than my scent.....

We had Brennan's birthday party today...poor thing, her birthday was August 3rd, but I've been so sick that we had to reschedule it and reschedule it! She was such a trooper!

Thanks to the party, though, we have a finally have a picture with the whole family in it. (See the updated profile picture...I really do have a husband!) 

I realize that not all of us are looking at the camera, but hey...we'll work up to that in stages. :)

Brennan's party was a big success. I cried. (I know, you're shocked!) We prayed a prayer of blessing over her, and when I was thanking God for the gift He's given us in Brennan, I got so choked up that I couldn't talk. I love this little girl so much! She is such a sweetie-pie!

How 'bout a Precept update....

Our ladies class has just begun the Precept Upon Precept (PUP) study of Kings & Prophets,      "A Divided Heart, A Divided Nation". We have a hungry group of ladies, and I'm so excited to dig in with them! 

If you want to find a class in  your area, go to www.precept.org and at the top of the page click on "classes".  If you still don't see one near you, please call Precept at 1-800-763-8280 and ask them to help you locate a class near you. They'll be happy to assist you.

I'm signing off for now...hoping to post Birthday pictures soon...

:)