My Everything Quilt

Chapter One: Ordinary Saints p. 12 Every true believer has been separated or set apart by God for God. p. 14 We don't become saints by our actions. We are made saints by the immediate supernatural action of the Holy Spirit alone who works this change deep within our inner being so that we do, in fact, become new creations in Christ. p. 16 The Bible has a word for conduct unbecoming a saint. It is sin. Chapter Two: The Disappearance of Sin p. 19 In fact, we often indulge in what I call the "respectable" or even "acceptable" sins without any sense of sin. p. 21 We gossip or lust because of the sinful pleasure we get out of it. Sin is sin. But the fact still remains that the seemingly minor sins we tolerate in our lives do indeed deserve the curse of God. Chapter Three: The Malignancy of Sin p. 23 Sin is a spiritual and moral malignancy. Left unchecked, it can spread throughout our entire inner being and contaminate every area of our lives. p. 24 Even though our he...

"It is God's miracle to work. He will work it in His time and in His way."

Apparently I am easily replaced. Funny, I have always believed when I no longer exist that there will be no more pain. So why then is my heart hurting so? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Woodstock received snow again on Sunday, January 9. It is now Tuesday and the snow is still on the ground. The temperatures have not gotten above freezing and the forecast does not predict that they will until Friday. Schools have been closed and will be again tomorrow. Businesses, government, everything is closed. However, we homeschool so school is in session. So, today after the school work was done, my girls wanted to play a game. What?! A game! I have been begging for weeks to play a game. Explanation here: I used a lot of educational games in our schooling to make things more interesting and to use what they had learned and for them to see they actually did learn! Now that Hannah is a senior and Moriah is in ninth grade they don't like to play games anymore. We did play a game (and they got excited every time they were asked a question about something we actually studied this year). In fact, we had to stop so I could cook dinner; then stop again to eat dinner. Being stuck at ...

In His time. No one likes to hear those words. Because it means Someone else controls what we want to control. In His time means we have to wait on Him; we can't make it happen ourselves. I like to be the one in control. It doesn't matter what the "it" is either. "It" can be waiting to get a new front door, or new kitchen counter tops, or something a little more serious like a relationship to change. You pray and pray until you can't think of any new way to pray about it, but things just don't change. You begin to have bitter thoughts and feelings about the person, so you purposely replace those thoughts with pure, holy thoughts and repent, asking forgiveness for the bitter attitude. You read 1 Corinthians every day for weeks and commit it to memory knowing you are going to have to remind yourself many times that Love is an action. Yet, nothing changes. This can be rather depressing if you are not keeping your eyes focused on His time. He knows my he...

2011. Today is 1/1/11. A new year. It has become our tradition to spend New Year's Eve with friends and family. We eat, talk, watch football, maybe play a game or two, eat some more and talk a lot more while we wait for midnight. Then the big moment finally comes. We all count down 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! The noise hits a new high as people are shouting, blowers are being blown, poppers are being popped. It is chaos for about 5 minutes, but it is the best chaos of the whole year. Then it's outside for the fireworks. Some of the more adventurous ones like to chance being burned and jump over the short fireworks! So far, no one has had to be rushed to the hospital, thank the Lord. Around 1:30am or 2:00am we head home. I always enjoy this evening and hope it continues for many years to come. Resolutions. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary (on my new Kindle) the meaning of "resolution" is: a firm decision to do or not to do something. I used to...

What a treat! We had a white Christmas here in Woodstock. It snowed all day and a good part of the next day. Christmas this year was on Saturday. Due to the dangerous road conditions, church was canceled for Sunday. Deborah, Neal and Amelia spent the day with us Christmas Day. Because of the road conditions, they spent the night as well. It was so nice having a baby in the house again. The day was very nice. We ate a leisurely breakfast (around noon!) and then exchanged gifts. It is so much fun to watch your loved ones open gifts you've given them, hoping they enjoy them as much as you anticipate! No "major" gifts this year, but a lot of love given with every item. We cooked a big lunch/dinner of ham and macaroni/cheese and so forth. My family could eat mac and cheese 365 days a year! After the dishes were cleaned, again, it was game time. We always play games together on Christmas. We played card games this year: Oh, Shoot and Hit the Deck. This took us well into the wee...