The Sum of the Matter

Well, let me start by saying I am still here. Oh, have we been busy and it just does not seem to be slowing down. The baby is crawling and pulling up on everything. She is 8 months today.

Wow. Time flies!

Jessie has started taking violin lessons at a local college and she still takes piano lessons.

Jenna is busy, busy, busy and demanding to have school (she will be 4 in July) she told me " Mom, I need to know what I need to know." Where she got that I do not know.

Josh is as wonderful as ever and helpful. He loves to work and looks forward to helping my brother restore a 1966 truck. He gets to help on this about once a week.

We have been in several revivals and have a couple more in the coming months. Life is good. These are the best of times. I try to remember that when no one can find matching socks and the baby is eating what she finds on the floor. : )

Now to the topic. Greg and I have been talking a lot lately about the Christian walk. Here is my theme:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of His glory and grace.

The things of the Earth will grow dim. Um.

How dim are the worldly things in our life? Are we walking with Him or are we drifting too far by compromising. Remember you can NOT serve two master.

Luke 16: ¹³ No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Now, don't get all up in arms. I know we have to live in this world, but dear reader we do not have to fill our head and lives with its ungodly influence. Let us gauge all that we partake of in the light of the following scripture.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8

The more we think of these things (the things of God) the less we will want to be turned to the things of the world. I don't have to list ways that we do this. The scripture is sufficient to rebuke. You can take the prodding of the Holy Spirit or you can ignore it. You can follow Him and reap the rewards or you can follow your will. Where will this lead? Our creator has a path for us. This is the one I want to take. I am fearing the Lord too much to go out on my own.

I owe Him my life.
All of it.
All of me.

Really, I think of it like this. If the next moment finds me in a life or death situation with a loved one. Will I feel guilt when I cry out to God for a life not true to Him, or will I be able to humbly cry out and know that although my righteousness is as filthy rags I am still able to come boldly to His throne and bring my petition to Him?

What is going on in our churches and in the lives of Christians? Too many compromises. Too much world. Too little scripture in our lives daily. Too little denying the flesh. If you are loving too much of the world it will be real hard to totally give yourself to God in the worship service.

He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30


Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? James 3:11

So the sum of the matter is this.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Rev. 3:16 KJV

It is time to take a stand. If we say we love the Lord then we must prove it with our lives. No more compromise. What is at stake? The lives of our families. Unbelieving loved ones. Oh, they are watching. What do they see?

Who are we serving?
Who are we yoked with?
What is our zeal for?

Today is Memorial Day. Oh, how grateful I am to our military, past and present. But, let us remember that our Lord sacrificed His life for us. Not just that we may live in a free land. God has been so good to America, our struggle for independence tells of it. The odds of our little young country rising up to defeat the British army and winning the Revolutionary War was nothing more than the hand of God. As mighty as this was it pales in comparison to the battle won on Golgotha's hill. The sacrifice that Jesus made is above all other! We may loose our freedom in American, we can never loose the blood that Jesus shed for us. (We can loose our testimony, that is another post) Now, that is something to remember and celebrate. How does He ask us to do that.

But as He which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written, be ye holy; for I am holy.
1 Peter 1: 15-16

Blessings,
Melanie

There is nothing much sweeter than

waking up beside a precious sleeping babe.

Great Fellowship

Two of the cutest hobbits you will ever see!

Sharing the love of piano.

Best Bud's

Happy!

What could be more fun than this?

I am so thankful for the fellowship we have with our friends and fellow homeschoolers. You may recognize them from the blog How Sweet the Sound. For many years I prayed that the Lord would send our way a family that lived close enough that we could have regular visits and that our children would get along and enjoy each others company. Add to that the wish that the Moms would also love to talk and spend time together and be able to encourage each other. Well, the Lord answered my prayer greater that I could have anticipated.....the other mom is also a preacher's wife and makes a good cup of coffee! God is good....He is so thoughtful of the little things that bring joy. (Like our book and movie collection and that with each visit we walk away with our own sack of borrowed books, audiobooks and dvds!)

Cutie Pies : )

Hey, Summer that is a pretty baby....

Janie, let me see if you are as soft as this doll.

Wow, this is a good book Janie.....

Want to see?

Spring

This is worth reading....PLEASE do so.

National Protest a What Day!!
(click the link)

I know that my blog has become really, really boring. I just have not had time to think about it. We have just came through two weeks of revival and have two more to go. Along with all of the other things that I am suppose to be accomplishing during the day I just can't think deep enough to put some of my thoughts into a coherent blog post.

However, my friend Tara can and she has a post today that can't be ignored. This is bigger than just people protesting Crisis Pregnancy Centers (although that is just insane in itself). When you think about the Pastor in this post being put in jail for peaceably witnessing for Jesus you must realize that this is a direct attack on our constitution, you know that free speech thing? Being married to a Pastor myself this really hits home with me. It is time we woke up and realized just how close we are coming to losing all of our freedoms because of the heathen that are getting elected by the ignorant masses. They are ignorant of the Constitution, the realization of how close we are to socialism, the fact that the government is closer and closer to regulating our entire lives all for the promise of a stimulus check being dropped in the mailbox.


Protesting a Crisis Pregnancy Center. What could be more absurd. They sit quietly in our little communities witnessing to those WHO COME IN ON THEIR OWN FREE WILL for help!

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isa. 5:20

She's Got An Ear For It.

Timely Products

Check out these products from Vision Forum. I am especially interested in the one on growing your own food. I know, like I have time for that right now. But, would it not be a great homeschool project? It would also be great for us all to work together and spend time away from all of our technological time robbers (iPod, Internet, Wii and so on....I am only throwing the first stone at myself as I am totally immersed in the audio version of The Count of Monte Cristo, all 47 hours of it, thanks to my friend Tara.)
Anyway, click on the picture above to go to their site and check out these items.

A Song on my Heart

This song has been on my heart for a couple of days. It is so beautiful.

Promises
Dottie Rambo

He didn't promise that I would never stumble,
But He did say He'd be there if I fall
He didn't tell me He'd hear complaints I whispered,
But He did say He'd hear me if I call.

Cho:
Promises, promises, and all of them true.
He's done exactly what He said He would do.
He didn't promise my heart would not be broken,
But He did say He'd mend it again.

He didn't promise my cross would not be heavy,
But He did say that He my load would bear,
He didn't tell me He'd grant my hopes and wishes,
But He did say He'd hear my earnest prayer.

What a Beautiful Day!

Can you tell Janie is teething?

Everyday

Jenna loves the computer.

Enjoying Janie Elise as she grows so fast.

Working hard on math.

What a wonderful spot for a school lesson.

What a precious picture.

The everyday brings great blessings if you can just look beyond the monotony of task done over and over.

We are so blessed to be together.

The picture just above is of Janie Elise and my Dad. Technically he is my step-father, but there has been nothing "step" about him. From the moment I remember meeting him I remember a kindness and sweetness that was needed so greatly in my life at that time. I was 10, my brother was just 2. God brought him into our lives after we lost our dad. He sent him, I will always see God's hand in that situation.

To have him love my children as much as any "blood related" grandfather is such a wonderful blessing. They don't even comprehend that he is anything but Poppa. I would venture to say that he loves them more that some "real" grandfathers do their own. He has been there. Generous. Supportive. Steady. A Blessing!

A Plug for my Husband

OK, so this is not exactly what a wheat grinding, label reading, whole food home school Mom would be serving her family on a regular basis but, this pays the bills and affords me to be a stay at home Mom. (They have changed a lot of the ingredients to be more healthy) In the midst of all of the peanut butter scare I thought I would post this video from Lance.

A Holy Experience

When you have time you must visit this blog. It is simply beautiful, the writer is very gifted. So inspiring!

Click here: A Holy Experience

Baby Fun

Cowboy has been having fun with Janie.

I think she loves every minute of it!

When you Rise Up.

Deuteronomy 11:19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

A scary fact: over 70% of Christian young adults who enter college will leave the faith by the time they graduate.

We (Dad and I) have pondered this for some time and prayerfully considered what can we do.

One of the conclusions we came to was this. The Bible has to be central in our home. Bible on Sunday and Wednesday is just not enough. Being a preacher's kid is not going to be enough for our children. They need a strong foundation laid by their parents, built on God's word alone. I am not talking Bible curriculum for homeschooling, I mean family devotions... led by Dad... daily.

Now you might be thinking, "She just thought of this?". Well, truthfully, I have read of families who do this but we have never had a consistent time of Bible reading as a family. My husband, who was taken to church his whole life did not do this growing up and I did not grow up this way either.

I wanted for this time to be led by Dad, the spiritual head of our home. I wanted the kids to participate and be interested.

Giving all glory to God, we have been able to implement this and the kids do enjoy it. (Anything with Dad is just right up their alley) They ask questions and talk about whatever it is that Dad reads.

Back to the statistic that I started with. I know many who this has happened to. It seems that all hope is gone for our children. The world's influence is every where. The pull is exceedingly strong. What is needed is a stronger foundation, not a Sunday School story foundation. We can't be Sunday morning Christians, it has to be all day, every day. We must measure all that we do in our homes and lives by the Bible. I could name many ways that Christians lose their witness to their children, but I am not going to throw stones for I know that I am the least in God's kingdom. What others struggle with may not ever bother me, but I do have my battles. I have not arrived, as they say! Again, the Bible must be our measuring stick, not another family. The Holy Spirit will speak and lead if we will listen and obey.

" Dying to self "

"Crucifying the flesh."

" I must decrease so that He may increase."

All of these I have heard all of my adult life. Sometimes hearing something so much desensitizes you to it. Please don't let that happen with these things. They are so, so true.

For Christians there can be no exceptions.

Well, I hope this ramble has made sense. It was so strong on my heart.

Happy Day!