Dying to yourself

This is from a book called Pure Gold:
"But now let us face the real question, How to die to self, and let Christ be all and all in us. In the first place, do we really believe such a state is attainable? Have we looked at the blessed Christ until we have obtained a clear conception of what it is to lose ourselves in union with Him? Have our spiritual eyes surveyed this blessed possibility, until it's attainability in this life has become a settled conviction with us? Then have we calmly, deeply, irreversibly settled it that there shall be none of self and all of Christ? Are we prepared to make that the motto of our lives? Do we think it, dream it, pray it, breathe it, drink of it, bathe ourselves in it, until it becomes a subtle, steady, all-prevailing passion in our minds, none of self and all of Jesus?"
I was greatly challenged by this. I don't know about you but I have not been very good at dying to myself. In fact, I think about myself a lot. I have 6 children to care for so I can not be totally selfish but I sure do find time to do what I want. In fact just in church last Sunday we were going over Titus 2. That is a hard role to try to fill. It includes dying to yourself a lot. But we shouldn't die to ourselves to fulfill Titus 2, we should die to ourselves so that Jesus gets the glory that He deserves. So above and beyond making Him the Lord of our lives is He our all and all in us? The Lord is really working on me with this and I do want to die to myself. I do know that ANY good thing that I do comes from the Lord and Him working in me, I know that I have nothing good in myself. Let's walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh!
Also one other thing that has been on my mind. It is okay to feel good when we are being obedient to the Lord and following the Holy Spirit's promptings. I have heard people talking about how they only feel good when they are being good. They say it is a works mentality. I don't agree. I think scripture is full of examples where we should do good things. I can't stand the mentality that we are to be failures all the time. Yes we do fail but Jesus is powerful and can set us free from sins. He didn't save us so that we could live pathetic lives here. We are to be lights and how can we be lights if we are constantly struggling? If we are constantly struggling then we need to examine why. Do you examine yourself daily? Are you humble? Could someone share with you your faults without you being defensive? If someone had something to say about an activity that you partake in would you examine it? Since becoming a Christian I see so many people that are hard to entreat, and prideful and wouldn't even consider being wrong. We should always be willing to study again and again the Word of God. We are human and can be wrong. Plus we need to be testing the spirits and observing the fruit. We can tell good fruit from bad fruit, can't we? So why do we act blind when something is causing bad fruit in our families? Let's get to the root of it. Then let's get rid of whatever it is that is causing it. We can't help others when we are struggling. With the Lord all things are possible! We serve a powerful and awesome Lord!

You Only Have Today!

Today is a GIFT!
By Nancy Dickens

Life can change quickly. The Bible warns us that our lives are like a vapor, or the grass of the field, which pass quickly and are gone. I know that and yet would never have imagined that in a few short months I would go from Crusade staff member, tennis and basketball mom, supporting girls in college and helping out at my 4 year olds' preschool to dealing with cancer, losing all my hair (yes, I am balder than my husband now.), dealing with nausea, fatigue, and various other side effects, and learning to live and flourish in the midst of it all. I could never have imagined. My life over the past few months has brought me to a place of serious evaluation and contemplation. When I was diagnosed with cancer I quickly realized that certain truths in my life had become more crystallized and in focus, and that certain extraneous habits and fears were something I no longer had time or energy for. I no longer had the luxury of looking at life and events through the eyes of one who is confident of the future and expectant of all of the milestones that would be a normal part of living out life together in a family. I had never been guaranteed that future and realized after my diagnosis how much I had presumed upon it. The first moment of this realization came at a baby shower just a few days after I was diagnosed. At all of my baby showers I collected the wrapping paper from my gifts so that I could wrap my gifts later in life for my children who were then having baby showers of their own. I have wrapping paper saved from Beth, Bri, Drew, and Will's showers, for the day I can celebrate their children's births. As I was explaining this tradition to my friend at the shower I realized, "Would that be me? Will I be there when my children celebrate the births of my grandchildren?" The second moment came when Dave was looking out the window as we were driving and saw an RV. He mentioned something about that would be us when we were older - something we have always joked about. I couldn't help thinking "Really, will that be us? Will I be there with Dave when I am older, ready to travel and spend our later years together?" It didn't take me long to realize that I needed to process through a good deal of "life change" and decide what my diagnosis and treatment would mean about how I would live life and experience the Lord in the midst of sickness and uncertainty. Here are some of my ponderings regarding the Truths in My Life: . God is the source of everything and worthy of all praise and honor. I have never been more sure of the privilege it is to be in a relationship with Christ and more aware of how He is my sustainer in this process. . David has always been "the one" for me. I have always been keenly aware of how fortunate I am to have David as my husband but that has definitely been brought even more to light during this difficult time. He continues to be such a perfect match for me that it makes me incredibly thankful. . Life is meant to be lived with care given to each day, for each person brought across our path, each child that needs our attention, and each kind and compassionate word that needs to be spoken. My life is not about which milestone I will survive to see, it's about which person I choose to care for today and who the Lord will bring across my path that I will truly choose to see and touch. Life seems too short to me right now for anything less.

My addition: Why does it take something like this for us to remember how precious life is? After reading this I found myself smiling more at my children and just being generally happier. Today is all we get! Why do we forget? Besides all of that we need to rejoice in the Lord, not in our life. I try to rejoice in a clean house or obedient children and it fails me, only the Lord can give me the real joy in my life!

Only 4 days left & Praising God!

Four days left with our raw food adventure. It has been so easy. The food has been so good. I think our next step from here is going to be 80-85% raw food and we're going to be changing some other things too. I have a cookbook called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and we are going to be implementing some of her ideas. She recommends soaking or sprouting all of your grains or flour before using them. Basically if you soak your flour in kefir or another cultured milk product it activates the enzyme phytase, which works to break down the phytic acid in the bran of grains. We are also going to be making whole grain sourdough! I'm very excited about that. I think I will love the taste. In any case we are going to be much more careful with our health. It is so true that you pay for it one way or another, either at the grocery store or at the doctors office. All I know is that I feel great. I have a 6 week old baby and I do not need a nap. I've been taking naps for the last 5 years. Not just 30 minute naps either. I get so much more done now! I feel like a better mom.

Anyway, I left out praise where praise belongs and that is to the Lord. My prayer has been to be healthy to serve the Lord. He has given me wisdom and I am so thankful for that. There are many things that go along with diet. A good conscience toward God & others, a grateful attitude, & even physical exercise. The Bible says that "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." Just having a merry heart does our bodies good. So I praise and thank the Lord for what he is doing for our family! To God Be the Glory!

Our Raw Food Adventure!

I wanted to share this amazing thing with all of you! Troy and I have been raw now for 3 weeks and we are feeling wonderful! We committed to eat 100% raw food for 30 days and are loving it! Troy's carpal tunnel has been gone since about the 2nd or 3rd day. The pain was so severe he was not sleeping well at night. The B-6 in all of the green leafy veggies we are eating helped him that fast! My energy is through the roof! I haven't felt this good since I was a child. To anyone out there that desires good health or just wants to feel better~ try raw food. We start with a green smoothie or fruit for breakfast, then have a big salad or sandwich with dehydrated bread for lunch and then I make something elaborate for dinner like pizza, tacos, sunburgers, or "pasta". I use a dehydrator for crust, crackers, breads, burgers, ect. I keep it at 105 so that it doesn't kill the enzymes. It has helped so much because the food feels like what we are used to only it tastes better! And tonight we had some raw ice cream to finish our night. Let me know if you would like the recipe, it's super simple. Anyway, I'm sure there's a few of you out there that would disagree with a diet such as this one so I have a challenge for you. Try it! I will try to post some pictures of the delicious food we are eating in my next post! TTFN

We have a baby boy! Elias James is here!

We are in awe of our new baby boy! It doesn't matter how many children you have, each new baby is a miracle and it's all new again! The Lord was so good to us and the baby was born in the Lord's perfect timing.

Elias James was born March 23rd at 8:29pm after 17 hours of labor. Actually 16, I had a one hour break! It was such a different labor and birth. My last two children were born in 7 hours. I have to admit that I expected that again. However, everything about this baby and birth was very different. My labor was very good and I loved the communion with the Lord with each contraction. I listened to hymns as I was in the bathtub. Only the last hour and a half were unbearable and that was due to a cervical lip. I always get a cervical lip and it is a terrible thing. It prevents the baby's head from coming down and it just causes a tremendous amount of pain. Once I finally made it past that then Elias was born in 5 minutes.

The Lord has greatly blessed us!

41 weeks and the Lord is in control!

I'm just amazed at how the Lord works and keeps us leaning on Him every step of the way. I have really been struggling with not having this baby yet and really thought today was the day! I have been having some serious contractions all day and they just kept getting stronger. So I called my midwife and guess what~ She is at another birth right now helping a first time mom with twins! This mom is also over 40 weeks (did I mention she's having twins?). Obviously my midwife can't be in two places at once so the Lord just stoppped my contractions. It truly is in His hands and I have total peace about it. What an awesome God we serve! So Lord willing, the next post should have a picture of our new blessing!~ God bless you all!

39 weeks & 3 days!

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted anything! I will try to do better. Don't hold me to it right away but I will be trying to post at least once a month. I have so much I could say but so little time to type it. Plus I have not enjoyed sitting in this uncomfortable chair for the last few months.
So baby update~ Due in a few days but will probably make me suffer for a little while after that! My babies like to do that to me! There was a great time of testing my faith during these past few months. Baby has been in the wrong position for the majority of the time. I really let that control my mood for awhile. When baby was head down I was happy but when baby was head up I was frustrated and so easily irritated. It was not good. I would give it to the Lord and then take the worry right back. Finally, I was able to truly give it to Him and He gave me peace back. It was and is so nice to rest in Him and not worry. I can say that I think I am learning a little faster but right away would have been ideal! Baby remained in a breech position for several weeks but now is head down and has been for almost a whole week! Yeah!!! Now I am just waiting for His timing so I can have this baby. This is a hard one too because I think I know the perfect time, it was a couple weeks ago.:0) But I guess the Lord has a different birth date in mind!
I hope everyone is doing good! Questions for the month are~ How is your quiet time? Are you communing with God and feeling satisfied with your relationship? How much of the Bible do you read each day?
My quiet time is sporadic right now. I am communing with God, He keeps me depending on Him and I love that. I read at least one chapter usually more and usually everyday. The children and I read the proverbs that goes with the day, March 7th read the 7th chapter. Then we have a Bible time and memorizing with our schooling. I have to be careful not to count these times as my Bible time because I am not alone with the Lord during these times. They are great but do not make up for a true quiet time with the Lord where I talk to Him and He talks to me through His word.
I just encourage everyone to read and really seek the Lord with all your heart.
Oh, vehicle update~ The Lord gave us a couple of cars and that was a blessing. Now we also have a van that seats 8 with room to grow to 12! It is a very nice van and we are loving going places as a family again!
I hope everyone has a blessed Lord's day!