Although not a current picture, this is a great one! 
Family is so important.  Sadly,  most people are too busy making money, running from activity to activity, to spend quality time loving those that God has blessed us with.
Remember , those in our home may not always be there. Don't take them for granted.
Blessings,
Kim

Changing Your Future

Changing Your Future

Yes, I enjoy Hallmark movies. They are decent and usually have a good story line; they always end happy! Some are too silly for me but many are not. Last week, I watched A Family for Christmas. It was about a career woman who was a successful newscaster. She lived in San Francisco in a gorgeous apartment overlooking the Bay. She received a promotion from a highly recognized news station in New York. She immediately took it with great excitement. However, before she got this job, she had a Facebook friend request come to her from an old boyfriend and it got her to thinking.

About this time, she met a guy dressed up as Santa Claus ringing the bell at the red bucket. {I'm not sure why Hallmark centers most of their Christmas movies around Santa Claus since those who watch them are mostly women!} She shared with him a bit about her life. He told her to make a Christmas wish. She went to bed that night and woke up the next morning in a house in the suburbs married to her old boyfriend with two children. She finds out she's a stay-at-home mother who deeply loves her husband {everyone told her she did any ways}. Of course, she was scared to death in this role at first and found Santa. He told her that she will stay in this situation until she "figured it out." She had no idea what this meant.

After a while, she began loving her life. She grew to love her two daughters and her husband. One night, they were all at a party and a newscaster who had previously been her secretary was sharing news on camera. Suddenly, the newscaster was hit by something falling, so this mother had to take the mic. She did a great job and was offered a prestigious job in the city which would mean her family would have to move to the city. She came home and excitedly told her husband. He unhappily replied, "I thought we were happy doing what we are doing!" He liked having his wife home full-time. She finally decided not to take the job since she loved her life the way it was so much.

The next morning, she woke up back in her bed alone in San Francisco. She frantically looked for Santa and told him that she loved that life. She wanted to go back. He told her she couldn't and she was so upset with him. Why did he take her from a life that she learned to love so much more? He responded, "You can't change your past but you can change your future." She quit her job, got a hold of her old boyfriend and it ended with them going out to coffee together arm in arm.

How many of you regret your past and your decisions? Did you put a career ahead of marriage and motherhood? Were you a disobedient wife to your husband, thus causing him misery? Did you divorce your husband and now know it was wrong? Did you have a career while putting your children in preschool to be taken care of by others? There is nothing we can do about the past but we can change the future. We can begin walking in the ways of the Lord. We can become submissive help meets to our husbands. We can work on coming home full-time and being a keeper at home. We can become the mother our children need. It's not too late. With God all things are possible. Therefore, stop regretting your past and start right now to obey the Lord's will for you in every area of your life.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Philippians 3:13

Please STOP Living Under the Law!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015

Please STOP Living Under the Law!

Many Christians still believe they are under the Law. I am going to try to convince you that we are NOT under the Law and are freed from it in Christ. The Law was given to the Jewish nation; God's chosen people. It was to point out their sin and their need for a Savior. It was very strict and the judgments for breaking the Law were severe; included stoning for various sins. Every year, the Jews had to sacrifice animals for "without the shedding of blood their was NO forgiveness." This is why they built the temple and had a place to worship and sacrifice; for payment of their sins.

Jesus came to earth as a Jew. He walked in a time when those He was teaching were living under the Law. During His time on earth, He clearly showed the people how impossible it was to satisfy all of the requirements of the Law and how we all need a Savior. He exposed the heart of the law on the Sermon on the Mount to show that no one has a heart completely incapable of keeping the Law, but one true Messiah, the Son of God come in the flesh to deliver us from the curse of the law. Yet He continued to live under the requirements of the Law since He was perfect and the only one who could obey it perfectly. He never had to sacrifice for His sins since He NEVER sinned. He was the ultimate sacrificial Lamb, the Promised One, who died and paid the penalty for our sin by shedding His own blood on the cross. 

The New Covenant {parts of Acts, Romans to Revelations} was written specifically for Christians and the church age we are presently living in. God's purpose was to first show His holiness in all of the areas one is to please Him under the law, for He is completely holy. But this was just part of his plan for mankind. His ultimate purpose was to do away with the wooden law of letters written on tablets and ordinances and replace it with a new law written on the hearts and minds of His newly adopted children. For we were once strangers and aliens to the family of God and under the curse of the law, yet Christ on the cross fulfilled the law so that you and I, who are "in Christ Jesus" can no longer be seen as constantly disobedient people, but instead cherished and loved children of God. 

"But this is the covenant which I will make with house of Israel after those days," declared the Lord, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" {Jeremiah 31:33}.

If you have somehow missed this important part of His-Story and are failing to see our God no longer as an angry God who is keeping score of your dos and don'ts, then you have missed out on the beautiful story of what God is doing in history. God is going about redeeming mankind, not so that we can be obedient because "we have to," but to be  obedient from the heart because we love him so much and want to please our heavenly Father. God wants a relationship with us, not to be our judge and jury, but to be intimately entwined with our lives as we share an eternal relationship with us. If perfect love casts out fear, than we have nothing to fear from a Father who would love us so much as to give us His only Son.  

When He died, He died to the Law, thus we die to the Law the moment we believe in Him. When He rose again, He made all those who believe in Him new creatures in Christ. The Law was a taskmaster whose purpose was to lead us to Christ. Christ's final words on the cross were "It is finished!" He completely fulfilled the Law and paid the penalty for all sin, thus conquered sin and death; He brought in a New Covenant of grace for all those who believe upon Him. Thus, we are NOT under the Law!

Please study the verses I am going to give you to back up all I just wrote! I also want to tell you not to try to put me back under the Law as the entire book of Galatians was written for the sole purpose of rebuking those who were trying to put others back under the Law. Paul called those who did this "heretics" {A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject. Titus 3:10}. Even the Sabbath and tithing were part of the Law and given specifically to the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, as a shadow of what was to come; Jesus Christ who made a New Covenant for us to live under, the Law of Grace! 

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. {Romans 3:20}

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. {Romans 6;14}

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. {Romans 7:4}

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. {Romans 7:7}

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. {Romans 8:2-4}

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?...For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious.

{2 Corinthians 3:7, 8-11}

But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.

{2 Corinthians 3:14}

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.{Galatians 2:16}

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. {Galatians 2:19}

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. {Galatians 2:21}

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? {Galatians 3:1}

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that does them shall live in them. {Galatians 3:10-12}

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree. {Galatians 3;13}

Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. {Galatians 3:21-26}

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. {Ephesians 2:15} Christ abolished the Law!

Paul tells us how he obeyed the Law but concludes with "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. {Philippians 3:7-9}

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,... {1 Timothy 1:9}

For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

{Hebrews 7:18, 19}

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. {Hebrews 8:7, 8}

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away. {Hebrews 8:13}

If you are still convinced we are under the Law, please listen to Michael Pearl explain Galatians and find the freedom from the Law that Jesus died to give you. We are FREE! We are His children. He is our Father. The Law no longer holds us captive!

Having Your Hands Full: What Society Tells Us to Be Busy With

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2015

Having Your Hands Full: What Society Tells Us to Be Busy With

{This post is by Andrea Roltgen. She is a mother to ten children; just having twins recently! She loves her husband, loves having children and being a keeper at home.}

There are things that society, and even largely the Christian world, encourages adults to have their hands full of.  With this comes the unspoken understanding of what is "best" to instruct children with so they will desire the very same overwhelming goals.  Interestingly, these societal pursuits contain no promise from the Lord for blessing, or even for strength or endurance, peace or knowledge, because these pursuits are not generally defined as selfless and godly pursuits.  In our generation in the US, we are encouraged to "Have our Hands Full" from the time we are small, doing the following ~

Becoming as smart as we possibly can via textbooks, so that we might go to college.

Be involved in multiple sports and activities.

Posses all the latest technology, even if it means we can't afford it, or if it isn't beneficial to our family or priorities.

Go to college to prove our worth.

Obtain lofty career goals, regardless of gender.

Have many hobbies.

Spend money ensuring you look our best at all times, if it needs a bit of silicone, tucking, etc., "go for it!"

Take many vacations.

Do whatever "makes us happy and fulfilled".  If this includes marriage, be sure to wait a certain amount of time after career is obtained, and ensure we have plans in place for preventing pregnancy.  If we don't want to marry, try out living together; in fact, we'd better have sex with anyone we find interesting or appealing, to ensure we marry someone we are compatible with. If marriage leaves us unfulfilled, or we figure out he/she isn't our "soul mate", then we deserve to be happy.  No fault divorce, please. If one is homosexual, transgender, etc., pursue that as long as one is happy.

Pursue entertainment on ones time "off" from lofty careers.

Leave very little minutes in a year free, open or "boring". Fill every moment with activity and sound.

Obtain many material possessions for which we are unable to pay cash.

Buy a home, and all it's contents on whatever means of debt we can get our hands on.  Have a large home, though we are rarely in it; a huge gourmet kitchen, even though we don't cook much or anything from scratch; great furniture despite not keeping our homes clean or uncluttered, and get it through the largest mortgage and lines of credit we can manage.  After all, we deserve it.  Then, blame the mortgage company when you can't afford to live there anymore.

Obtain multiple car payments for new and incredibly depreciating vehicles.  Everyone does it. We can't expect to drop kids off at school in a paid off ten year old vehicle!

Demand what is owed to us. In marriage. In life. In society. If we don't get what we "deserve" then abandon, sue and/or jump ship.  

Uphold the appearance of planned prosperity and organized futures.

Plan, limit and fund children around debt, house, entertainment and career.

Place education of our children higher than any other quality or goal for their lives.

Send children to college through planning for the funds to do so.  If we don't have the funds, go into debt.  College is a must for any responsible parent.  Begin making jokes and counting down the years/months/days until they are"off to college" and out of our lives.  Provide a credit card with little accountability for their behavior and character while away at college.  It's what we have to do.

"Put in" our time with the kids, and then retire to pursue more of what we didn't get to accomplish because of the kids being in the way, thus making ourselves unavailable for mentoring or assisting in the raising of our grandchildren.

Society seems to not bat an eye at any of these pursuits and accomplishments that make an adult valid, worthwhile and successful.  Being busy and overwhelmed by these life "necessities" is honorable.  When a career woman mentions she is stressed because of deadlines at work, and striving for the above mentioned societal expectations, she's given kudos for being able to do it all, for being so successful, and for being so involved in raising her children right. When a young mama confides to a friend at church she's stressed because there are no mentors, no true models of godly mothering left for her, and because she's overwhelmed by negativity regarding her high calling, she's laughed at and told to deal with it; she is lucky she gets to be home.  

When a young mother is struggling to understand how to put into action what she knows is true and right, she may find herself isolated, even in church and family, among a sea of women telling her that she is less-than for being at home; for wanting the simple; combined with waves of societal reinforcement that if we don't "have to work" the result is we are home, disheveled in sweat pants, and living in a messy and chaotic home; making hamburger helper. Why would we be interested in doing anything more?

Then there is what God says about the focus of our lives ~

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal." Matthew 6:19

"Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint."  Proverbs 23:4

"But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?  So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."  Luke 12:20-21

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness."  1 Corinthians 3:19

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."Philippians 2:3,4  

"Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." 1 Corinthians 10:33, 11:1 

The Bible, however, is not condemnation of spirit without giving direction on where our hearts and actions should be!  The following verses deal specifically with instruction about children, and lastly, convictions to live out the truths of God's Word, which are diametrically opposed with the approved hands full living of society.

"For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”  Genesis 18:19

 "All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children."  Isaiah 54:13

 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children."  Deuteronomy 4:9

"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."  Deuteronomy 6:6-9

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."  2 Timothy 3:14-15 

Having our hands full with the eternal vs. the carnal, with the soul winning vs. the self serving, with the Kingdom vs. the crowd, with the permanency of Salvation and Heaven vs. temporal hedonism of here and now, is such a huge blessing. 

While I used to cringe at the comments,"Wow, you sure have YOUR hands full!" I no longer do so; to have our hands full with the work of God pleases the Creator Himself.  I now take the comment {which we get exceedingly interspersed with kudos on our family, their behavior, etc.} as a reflection we are pursuing what is right.  I know that no one would ever comment on a person having their hands full with societally acceptable pursuits, as they are not remarkable today!  A society, even a once Christian society that has lost it's purpose through having their hands full with pursuing today's me centered accomplishments and noise, mean little for the Glory of Heaven.

What do you have your hands blessedly full of today?

What Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah?

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

What Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah?

Many believe it was homosexuality that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them" {Genesis 19:4, 5}. Then others believe it was pride that destroyed them, NOT homosexuality. What does God's Word have to say?

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom; pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good {Ezekiel 16:49, 50}. God's Word tells us that it was pride that led to homosexuality.

Romans 1 clearly explains the progression of sin. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise {PRIDE}, they became fools...Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them...For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.

Then again in James 1:14, 15 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. As you can see, there is NO "falling into sin." Sin is a progression of small steps moving farther and farther away from God's ways and giving into our flesh instead of obeying God.

Therefore, it does begin with pride; thinking we are wise and know better than God. God warns about riches since when all of our needs are abundantly met, we no longer rely upon the Lord to meet them and we don't thank Him for all that we have but instead think it is only from our hard work. After we heap up stuff, we become idle with too much time on our hands and begin to get in trouble by slowly compromising with the world and its ways. We forget about the poor and needy and hoard everything to ourselves. Lastly, we give in to every type of abomination and participate in wickedness, becoming seekers of pleasure rather than seekers of God.

How do we prevent this from happening to us when we see our nation falling into the same sins as Sodom and Gomorrah? We dwell on the lovely and the good. We let the Word of God dwell in us richly being transformed by the renewing of our mind with God's Truth and NOT the lies of the world. We walk with the wise. We are thankful and generous; sharing our money, time and talents with the needy. This is a life that is pleasing to the Lord and His grace upon us makes it possible to walk in the Spirit becoming servants to righteousness instead of walking in the flesh and servants to sin.

Lori Alexander

Where has the time gone? We've had lots of baking, bird feeder making, and playing games. 

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Snippets of Time

I've been given a lot of scraps of material and I've been busy sewing baby quilts. I'm quite surprised at how much I can accomplish just sitting at the table while the boys are doing their school work. I can be there if they need me, and also sew a few stitches in between making lunch or throwing in the next load of clothes.
~Kim

Home Schooling Snow Day!

Benjamin and Noah had a lot of fun today.  Today's schedule: Play in the snow, do some schoolwork, drink hot cocoa, REPEAT!  What a fun day it has been.  Blessings, Kim

Fall Decorationing

I finally set aside a little time to put out some fall decorations. The boys like it that way!
Blessings, Kim