No Ordinary Thaw

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I came across this picture taken here in MN recently. It made me think…when we let Jesus melt our hearts in areas of our lives that need His refinement, it brings us to a place of humility where we can Truly Worship at His Feet! ~susy

Psalm 97:5,6,9,11 & 12

The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim His righteousness,
and all the peoples see His glory.

For you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods.

Light is shed upon the righteous
and joy on the upright in heart.

Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous,
and praise His Holy Name.

It’s pretty clear from even a slightly more than cursory look into secular history that ALL so-called “christian holidays” are really pagan (in most cases, deeply and horribly pagan) holidays which were “christianized” in order to placate the pagan masses finding themselves suddenly under the Constantine-sanctioned Roman Catholic rule of the day. (How many bad decisions are made, spiritually, in order to “placate” people?? :-()

Paul said we shouldn’t judge others who “hold one day more sacred than the rest” though he did indicate that such people have “weaker faith.” Why would he say that? Isn’t it all just “innocent opinions” with no real consequence? Well, apparently not, not from God’s standpoint…
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Here’s another encouragement we received recently. A reminder that we are not “Christians” as the world (and the merely religious) see that sort of thing. We are not ones who happen to subscribe to one of the “world’s three major religions.” But rather we belong to, hear, respond to, Love and are now genetically Related to Jesus Christ:

Never officially does the Bible refer to His People as “Christians.” “Christianity” was never a term given to us by Jesus Christ or the apostles. The term “Christian” was never to be a title or label that we wore, but a lifestyle that we live, demonstrating “Christ-likeness.” In essence, “Christian” was supposed to be a description of the culture of the Kingdom being exhibited through our lives. This is why the first Believers were called “Christians” by the early observers of their lifestyle, their [observable] power [not their mere "bible knowledge"], their boldness and their Christ-like authority.

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Alright now… I’m just letting everyone know, right now, that I’m looking for the culprits who have taught my children to be “white and nerdy.” :-) When I catch up to them… I going to do something… “white and nerdy” to them. :-) Like make them interpolate “pi” to 1000 decimal places using the sine/cosine method using only pencil and paper…!! (Now THAT’S “white and nerdy”!!!)

~chris

Jordan planned a bowling outing for his friends as an assignment for his speech teacher. A good time was had by all!

~susy

Jordan on the approach…

Jordan on the ball, launch and roll…!

Jordan and his speech teacher, Rachel.

What a bunch of GOOFBALLS!!

DJ, making sure everyone goes in the right order… “DJ the ‘turn monitor’!!” :-)

“Okay… You are clear for take off, Ms. Susy!”

Here is something we received recently from a friend via email that encouraged us in the area of being very Loving, but also… completely uncompromising when it comes to Truth and we thought we’d pass it along.

“Buy the Truth and sell it not” as Solomon said. The Truth is going to cost us something, but without the Truth, what do we have? It’s critically important to our spiritual vitality to adopt the same attitude towards Truth that Jesus and those before us did. This attitude and approach happens to be a characteristic of Real Love, by the way, as God defines Love. “Love …REJOICES in the Truth” and continues to “bear, believe, hope and endure” when others do not share in that same rejoicing and embracing (1 Corinthians 13:6,7).

We can’t let the world sell us on its philosophy of “everything in moderation.” “There’s no point in getting yourself killed over something so controversial and debatable…” you can hear the world exclaim as it did to those before us who stood on the Truth to the point of spilling their own blood.

(from a recent email)

I was talking for a couple of hours yesterday with a man who was a pitcher in professional baseball for ten years. He played for the Orioles and Yankees, in the “Big Leagues.”
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Okay… We just HAD to do this. It’s gotta be funny just ONCE, huh?? :-)

So, Bethany and I are sitting around in her room talking about various things… And somehow the topic of “cute” came up. Then the comment was made “cute, like little Levi in his cooking pot… so CUTE!!”

Next thing you know, Bethany’s deviant mind started spinning and she “cooked up” (ha!) the idea of “borrowing” Levi’s picture from Kent and Christy’s blog and putting it on OUR blog too. (Where in the world does she COME UP with this stuff??!!! She takes after her MOTHER!!!) “He’s so cute, we HAVE to have him on our blog too! If they won’t let us steal LEVI, then we can at least steal his PICTURES!!!”

So, here he is in all his glory. :-) He’s barely a year old (errr, something close to that!) and he’s already being cross-posted on multiple blogs… (They never did that for us, did they Kent, and I know you and I were JUST as cute…)

~chris

PS. Let the “blog wars” begin, huh??

PPS. Oooo-kay… He REALLY DOES belong to the best-ests of families and you should read the post that we “raided” here. :-)

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We thought it would be fun to take a “sick-mess” and “cleanliness” picture of our living room. Most of the house was in the same “sick-mess” shape at the end of the week of us all being very sick with the stomach flu. Then we were able to get the house back in “cleanliness” shape with some time and effort.

These pics make me think about how The God who Created the Universe is a God of Order. When our hearts are in the state of “sick-mess” there is chaos, tripping over of attitudes, no energy for Life, no one wants to be around a “sick person,” no resources to be an encouragement to others… and so on. But when we do things HIS WAY, we stay healthy in all areas of our lives, and there is peace, and a place to rest and Enjoy Him and others in our Lives. ;o)

~susy

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What a Sweet Day in the Sun!

We had a high of 50 degrees today here in MN! “This is Aslan’s doing!”

The children enjoyed eating lunch out on the back porch then rode their bikes to the park to play a bit of tennis.

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Our family had the stomach flu this week — a pretty bad dose of it too! Seth was the hardest hit in the family. He had the most “bathroom visits” of us all. Anyway, on a late night visit to the bathroom last night he passed out!! Chris was up late reading and came down to see what was going on, and Seth had “come to.” He said he came to with his head in an awkward position against the couch where he had hit his head on the (soft) couch!

His dad grabbed his pillow and slept near Seth ’til 4am this morning. It was touch and go all day for Seth with a few more “bathroom visits,” high fever and near dehydration. We came very close to taking him to the ER this afternoon! I had spoken with my parents and knew they were praying. Also, Chris called some brothers and sisters to have them pray and very shortly after that, Seth’s fever broke and he was sitting up playing video games with his sister! Oh, and no more “bathroom visits”either :o) Quite a dramatic change when things looked awful just hours earlier.

Just want to Give Thanks for those who prayed and more so to The Healer of our bodies and Hearts for His Gift of health so quickly for Seth today!

Praise to our King!

~susy