The Bible in 90 Days. It is finished!

June 28, 2008
I have just had the most amazing 90 days. I was challenged to read the Bible in 90 days. When this was first proposed I had to think on it awhile because I am a student of the Word. I like to read, study, research, define and just dig deep when I read the Bible. Doing this in 90 days did not make this possible but, I decided I would try. Afterall, there have been many a time that I have read a huge novel in no time and asked myself why I hadn't just read the Bible straight through. So, my journey began on March 31, 2008.
There were days that I began reading and ended up lost in thought. I would have to go back an reread a passage or two. There were days I read and was amazed at the connections I was able to make as I read through book after book in the Bible. Reading the 4 gospels back to back was a very interesting experience. Getting to know Paul better as I read each of his books back to back has given me many things to think through and mull over.
Today I finished my study by reading straight through the book of Revelations. How awesome it is to see God's hand and the end of the story. A story of fallen people who are redeemed by a loving God who is faithful to His promises and is victorious in the end. I found myself in tears as I saw the loving hand of our God end the torment of the saints. Tears also flowed as His glory was revealed in the human terms that are just a shadow of the reality of God. I then found myself face down in prayer and praise to our awesome God, in humble submission that He would even consider me to enter His eternal rest, that He made me worthy to be reconciled to Him through the death of His son. How can I be humbled, exalted, rejoicing, ashamed, awed and in tears all at the same time?
I issure forth this challenge to you all. Not that you accomplish reading the bible in 90 days (though I recommend it), but that you seek His Word that you might come to know Him more, that if you have not made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior that you seek to find Him and the promise of salvation that comes only through Him.
I will end simply with the end of the book....
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."
Amen, Come Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.
Revelations 22:20-21

We're Home!!!!

What a great week we have had. Our entire family left for JAM (Jesus and Me) Camp on Monday. This is our children's camp for kids who are going into 1st grade through kids going into 6th grade. My sons went as campers, my daughters as teen counselors and Phillip and I as adult counselors. It is a tremendous joy for the whole family to go. It was a busy, exhausting, exhilerating, happy, joyful, fun-filled week spent teaching children about the love of Christ. Our children's minister calls it "A little taste of Heaven". He is so right. There is no greater joy than to focus wholly on children and the Lord for a week. We are told it is our job during this week to be "Jesus with skin on" to these kids.
We returned home yesterday afternoon and real life started up again. But we are ever so grateful that this "real life" is temporary and that our hope is in our home in heaven where we can "JAM" forever.
Phillip and I have hit the ground running so I will try to get pictures and more information up sometime this weekend, if not then maybe Monday.
Off to do more laundry and help the kids to settle back in to being home.

Happy Father's Day!!!!!!

There is no greater gift to a child than a Father who is involved and loves his children. Today we give thanks to the Lord for the blessing of my husband who deserves a "Dad of the Year" award every year. He has a love for his children that will help them to understand the love of our Father in heaven. His children can not wait for him to return home everyday and frown when he has to work late or on weekends. Happy Father's day Phillip! I know you would say it is happy simply because of the blessing of your children.
Here is how he started the day. He is working on slide shows for our children who are graduating from camp this year.

Here is how he spent the afternoon!


He is back to working on JAM Camp for our kids.
I also want to say Happy Father's Day to my Dad. Thank you for all you taught me and how I have never doubted your love for me. Thank you also for loving my kids. What a great Grandpa you are! Praying you are enjoying your day. I love you!

Living her dream. Mounted Horse Performance

J has loved horses from before the day she could say "Horsey!". She has always wanted to ride. But, every little girl wants a pony so we watched to see where her passion would take her. Last year she had the opportunity to take riding lessons. The instructor informed me that she only took students who truly loved horses so we sent J to horse camp for a week. At the end of the week her instuctor assured me that J had a true passion for horses and her lessons began. She has now been riding for just over a year and yesterday we got to watch her first "Mounted Horse" performamance.
Here she is with "her" horse Poca short for Pocahontas.

They began the performance all lined up.

She was chosen to be one of two leaders and here you can see how seriously she took this.

They circled the arena and then in unison turned and came toward us.

Toward the end of the performance they did a "Wagon Wheel". They had 2 horses in the center circling each other while 2 others formed a larger circle whild trotting around the 2 inner horses and then 2 others made the outer circle while galloping around the 2 inner circles. It was wonderful!!! They learned all of this in a day and a half.


After the performance they each introduced themselves and their horses and told a little about them. J's horse is and Arabian with Paint coloring.


I was really surprised at how emotional I was watching her in the performance. My baby girl is living a dream she has had for a long time and she looked so natural on that horse. J is not known for her serious nature but you could see how important this was to her as she lead her team. We are so thankful that the Lord has blessed her with this opportunity and has provided us with what we need to make this dream come true for her.

God's Little Confirmations

One of my constant prayers for my children is that they know Christ. Not that they believe there is a God or even just believe in Christ or that He is the Son of God, but that they know Him personally and interact with Him. As I watch my children grow I wonder if they are truly getting to know Him and trust Him and have a deep relationship with Him. I don't want my children to "have religion", I want them to KNOW Christ.
As I watch them grow in their faith I pray that their faith is their own. I ask God to show me. In His faithfulness He does. This is what He gave me recently from my youngest dd. She recently was at a youth group retreat where they sang the song "I Want to Sing You a Love Song". She shared with me that she physically felt Jesus next to her. She said she tried to tell others but they just did not understand. I told her I understood and then she told me she had written something that she felt the Spirit had led her to write. I only wish you could hear her read this as I can feel her heart as she reads it.

I stopped, trembling, before a huge, golden gate. The pearls set into it gleamed like diamonds. I stepped forward, hearing singing from within. “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty. Who Was, and Is, and Is To Come.” The gate swung slowly inwards, making no sound, not even a whisper. A man stepped through, garbed in glowing white. My breath caught. He smiled warmly.
“Welcome, Brother! I am Peter.” I stared transfixed as he led me into Heaven. We walked together through rooms of gold and jewels, down a street made of gold bricks-which was lined with beautiful houses-and up to the ornate doors of a huge room.
Peter smiled encouragingly when I faltered, and then, turning, he walked away. Hesitantly, I pushed open the doors.
I was surrounded by brilliant Light and a warm Voice saying, “Welcome, Child.” I stepped forward, and then fell to my knees. Before me stood a man, His face the very picture of Love. His deep eyes were filled with more passion than I could comprehend. His face was too beautiful for words. His voice was enough to make you feel like if you had ceased to exist at that moment, you would have done it willingly, because your life had been fulfilled.
A song that I used to sing in church came to mind. I Want to Sing You a Love Song… I knew He could hear my thoughts. For You are the Thief of my heart… I pressed my face to the ground. Rhythm and Rhyme try to describe it. No matter how hard I try, I can’t hide it… I was wracked with involuntary tremors as His Light washed over me.
Faithful, You are Faithful… I spoke out loud. “ But I’ve turned my back on You so many times.” …I have found nothing but good in Your Heart… “Search me, Lord. I’m unclean.” …Loving, You are loving. I am in love with the way that You are… “And I’ve been so hateful.” …Thankful, I am thankful… “Not thankful, Lord. Ungrateful.”
…I had been running away on my own… “I’ve turned my back on You so many times, Lord, and you always took me back.” …And then You found me… “You searched for me incessantly, Lord.” …Oh, how You love me… “Why, Lord? Why?” …I know You’ll never leave me alone... “When I left You so many times?”
A warm Laughter emanated from the all-consuming Light. “Child, I died for you. How could I not love you?” I looked up into His loving face. “Why did you die for me?” The Lord pulled me into an embrace that I felt I could stay in forever. His answer told me I could. “Because I made you.”


There is no greater joy than for me to see my children knowing God.

Sunday-Thursday....and Boy's Haircuts

Sunday-Phillip and the kids went to worship. I was blessed with the honor of sitting with Gillian at the hospital while her mom and dad went to worship together for the first time in several weeks. It was such a joy. She is smiling again!! She recognized me and made he happy noises as I kissed her hand. She also sat up in her wheelchair for 2 hours!!! This is such an accomplishment as she continues to get better.
After worship Phil and I went to a meeting to finalize plans for JAM Camp (Jesus and Me). This is a week long camp for our 1st-5th graders up in Oklahoma. C will be graduating this year. Look for pictures later of camp and his graduation. I can't believe he will be middle school age soon!
Later that evening we were able to participate in an ice cream social/church service. We are meeting on Sunday nights in a new location to see what the Lord has planned in that area. We are excited at what He is doing.
Monday-hmmmmm? Oh! J started horse camp this week. They are preparing to do a performance with the horses this Friday. J has been riding for a little over a year now and is so comfortable around horses now. I wish I were! LOL Oh, we also did school.
Tuesday-Same as Mon. except that we met with our home group Tues. night.
Wednesday-Same as Mon. and Tues. but we also worked on cleaning the garage again. We cleaned it out recently but then the kids cleaned out their rooms and put everything in the garage. So, we spent about 1 1/2 hours yesterday working on getting things separated out to donate, give away, and store. We still have more work to do but we made a good dent in the garage. The girls went to youth group, Dad to an elder/staff meeting and took the boys with him so I was alone at home last night. It was wonderful to have a quiet house all to myself for a little while.
Thursday- Horse Camp for J, I ran several errands getting things ready for camp, then came home to find out some friends were coming over. We had lunch, enjoyed catching up, kids played "Apples to Apples" and then they were off to spend some time together.
I then took the boys for haircuts. One of these days I am going to remember to take before pictures before I go to get their hair cut. But these "before" pictures are recent enough.
BEFORE:





















What a difference!

Martin Family Campout June 6-7,2008

This past weekend we took a trip to Lake Cooper for our Martin Family Campout. We enjoyed camping with Grandmommy and PawPaw, Aunts and Uncles. There were no cousins there because they have all grown and were busy doing other things. Here we are sitting around enjoying hamburgers for dinner.

Throughout the weekend we had a little visitor who really enjoyed the mirror on our car. He did not seem to be afraid of anyone and really enjoyed seeing himself in the mirror.

We went hiking.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the lake.

The boys also got a chance to do some fishing.

Here Dad helps C out.

Dad helps R with his pole and gets him fishing.


It must be hard work! LOL

A went hiking against her will be ended up enjoying it. Here she is mugging for a picture.

We are blessed to have grandparents nearby. PawPaw showed the boys how to tie hooks on their poles. Unfortunately they kept losing their hooks to tree branches and they eventually ran out. But, they got a lot of practice tying them onto their poles.



All in all it was a great weekend. We did go swimming and enjoyed family. The weather even proved nice for June!

The things you find around my house...

Two days ago I walked into my room and found this....

I snapped a picture without it's knowledge and then sat at my desk to do some work on the computer. When I turned around I found this......

What goes through the mind of a little boy?LOL

Today I walked in to find this going on in my room. That same little boy is now eagerly helping his dad put a desk together. He was behind the desk earlier hammering away. I love how he loves to work with Daddy.

Good and Faithful Servant

Today in worship our communion talk was about Peter walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-36). It was pointed out that so often we think we are safest in the boat during a storm. But Peter was truly in the better, or should I say safest, place when he was walking on the water in the midst of a storm. Why? Because he was with Jesus. There is no safer place to be.
Peter knew that Jesus asking him to walk on water was scary. He knew it was impossible and he knew the only way he could do it was with Jesus.
The young man giving our communion talk called himself a "math" guy and so he summed it up with this little formula:
A little faith + God = The Impossible!
I have a precious friend, no a sister who is in the midst of the storm. She has been walking in this storm for the last 4 weeks. Her daughter has been in the Intensive Care Unit very, very sick. Several times during this hospitalization she has been in an emergency situation and held onto life with medicine, machines but mostly with the prayers of many petitioning God.
Throughout this time Kimberly has prayed without ceasing. Much of the time it has been through tears. She is scared, she knows that what she has been called to do is impossible, but, she knows that the only way she can do it is with Christ. She is walking on water because she is keeping her eyes on Jesus. At times the storm overwhelms her and she begins to sink. But, she knows who her Savior is and crys out to Him and He lifts her up again. She is in the midst of the storm walking on water. But she is safer than all of us because she is where she knows she needs to be. She is in the midst of the storm but, she is with Jesus.
She feels weak and pulled and stained. But she is walking on top of the water because she is focused and completely dependant on Christ.
This is for you precious sister-friend because I see what you cannot right now. I see you walking on water because you are surrendering all.
After communion we sang "I surrender All". All I could think of was how perfect this song described you right now.

All to Jesus, I surrender
All to Him I freely give.
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

I surrender all.
I surrender all.
All to thee my precious Saviour,
I surrender all.

I know our Lord is saying "Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done!"
I love you Kimberly. Keep doing the impossible. Keep walking on water as you keep your eyes on Jesus.