Red Letter Christians

Family Reunion

This past weekend we all ventured up to visit our Mimi & Aunt Gayle.

I am so thankful to God that the entire family was able to take off work.

For whatever reason, I did not get many pictures... which I of course regret. :(

I didn't even get any pictures with Mimi or Aunt Gayle.

I guess we just stayed busy getting everything together for the family/friend reunion.

Mimi's beautiful entrance

and cute chicken house.

Dad and Mom

Chrissie joined the band :)

Happy Birthday Brittany!

We were so excited to find
this really neat coffee shop

Matthew the statue

The family that I am so grateful for!
Yes, even my silly husband there on the end. ;)

Offensive & Attractive

Mark Driscoll writes:

The curious paradox of the atoning death of a bloody Jesus rising above the
plane of human history with a mocking crown of thorns is that he is offensive in
an attractive way. It is the utter horror of the cross that cuts through the
chatter, noise, and nonsense of our day to rivet our attention, shut our mouths,
and compel us to listen to an impassioned dying man who is crying out for the
forgiveness of our sins and to ask why he suffered. Tragically, if we lose the
offense of the cross, we also lose the attraction of the cross so that no one is
compelled to look at Jesus. Therefore, Jesus does not need a marketing firm or a
makeover as much as a prophet to preach the horror of the cross unashamedly. (Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches, 33, emphasis added)

Celebrating Early

My little sister, who is the baby of the family, will be turning 19 years old on Friday! It is hard to believe! Since we all have plans for this weekend, we decided to celebrate her special day a little early. Per her request, mom made chicken fettucini with steamed broccoli, salad, and garlic sticks with marinara dipping sauce. Mom also made a Ho Ho Cake!! Always yummy!!! I thank God for the baby sister that He gave to me at the age of five. May we continue to grow closer to Christ and may our friendship be strengthened with our years on this earth.

(Mom preparing the yummy alfredo sauce!)

(Clean-up. Clean-up.)

(Sisters!)

(Brittany being silly!)

Established Steps

Saturday, we had plans to meet up with some others at the Crete Myrtle Festival in Angier, NC to share the gospel. We arrived there around 12:30pm. We started to walk through the festival, in search of our friends booth. It was very, very hot! And the festival was very, very small. Haha. I think we walked by all the booths at least 4 times in search of our friends; but they were no where to be seen. And we didn't have their phone number. :( Apparently, there had already been several booths to leave for the day because of the heat, our friends obviously being one of them (and I don't blame them!). We were able to pass out some gospel tracts and verbally share the gospel with a couple guys. We also had the privelage of meeting a like-minded brother by the name of Tim! He was such an encouragment. Around 2pm, we decided to try and find our friends house. We had only been their one time, so I prayed that God would bring back the directions to Tony's memory. And sure enough, God answered that prayer! I was so excited!! We pulled up to their house, rang the door bell, and nobody answered. :( So we got back in the car and started our hour ride home. I felt sad and just thought it was the wierdest thing that we weren't able to meet up with our friends. I kept reminding myself that God was in control. About 15 miles from home we stopped in at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. As we stepped out of the car, we heard someone say "Tony!" It was one of Tony's old friends, whom he hasn't seen since highschool. We were able to speak with him (and his mom) for several minutes. We also gave his friend a gospel-centered music CD, that we pray will open his eyes to the Truth of scripture. As we walked away from the conversation, we realized that if we had found our friends booth at the festival or if they were at home, then we would not have been at Wal-Mart at this specific moment. God is good!! I am so glad that HE establishes our steps!

Chinese Food

Thursday was my designated errand day. First I stopped by the Wayne County Library to get some books for Tony's research paper. I called Tony to tell him of the books I found. :) He also suggested that I should make Chinese food for dinner, specifically Crab Rangoons (or won-ton's). ;) Now that is a cuisine that I have very little experience with, but I decided to give it a try. I gathered all the necessary ingreidents, and by God's grace it turned out to be pretty tasty. I even found chopsticks! :)

Super Abounding Grace

There is more mercy in Christ,

than there is sin in us.

"Now the law came to increase the trespass, but where sin increased,

grace abounded all the more,

so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness

leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

--Romans 5:20-21

As stated by Pastor John Piper, The aim of all creation, all history, all redemption, is the glory of the triumphant grace of God, through the righteousness of Christ, freeing us from sin and guilt and condemnation, and giving us a never-ending life, where, after ten thousand years of seeing and admiring and enjoying the glory of Christ, we will have only just begun.

O for a thousand tongues to sing

My great Redeemer's praise,

The glories of my God and King,

The triumphs of his grace.

When we've been there ten thousand years

Bright shining as the sun

We've no less days to sing God's praise,

Than when we first begun.

Priceless Heritage

In regards to my previous post about our recent visit to the nursing home, my dear sister in Christ forwarded the following song lyrics to me. May we not lock our priceless heritage away.

When Father Time begins to run out on you
There's a place we take you to"Just a burden now",
I heard them sayI know I'm just in the way
You watch the car as they drive slowly away
Their guilt will hang on them for just today

All alone you sit, the phone never rings
Each day new sorrow brings
And the holidays, they come and they go
But there's one thing that I know

Even though my family counts me for dead
I never see them anyway
My life to God is not a worthless mistake
He's right there with me in my endless heartache

Can you look away from all this pain
Or do you think it isn't there
Can you look away from all this pain
Say you just don't really care

As we lock our priceless heritage away
Our kin the elderly
Do you know someone who stares at the walls
I think you know what to do

Light & Healthy

After dinner tonight, Tony requested that I make a light and healthy snack, since he has lots of reading to do for school. I was thinking and naming off some healthy snacks (pumpkin seeds, apple sauce, fruit smoothie). Tony said with all sincerity, "How about some soft chocolate chip cookies." Haha. "Okay, I'll make them as healthy as possible." ;) So, as the cookies are baking, I figured I would write about our weekend.

Saturday, Tony mowed our jungle... I mean our yard. It's always nice to get that done for another week. :) That evening we visited a local nursing home to pray with some of the people there. We just walked the hall and went room by room, so long as they weren't asleep. My heart is always saddened, to think that some of them have been abandoned by their families and have very few visitors. And then to see how their health and their mind is failing. When asked if she had any specific prayer request, one sweet lady said "pray for all the sinners here in this nursing home. They need Jesus." When asked if she is able to speak with the people here about the gospel, she replied with enthusiasm - "All the time." To think how quickly time passes by, and that we are not even guaranteed our next breath is very humbling. The ladies that we prayed with that night were all very grateful. And so was I... grateful to God for so much!

Sunday morning we heard this powerful sermon regarding our sanctification. Theologian Wayne Grudem defines sanctification as "a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives." That evening I made a batch of ice cream sandwiches and we visited with my parents and brother Matthew. Fun. Fun.

Tony did not have work on Monday (yay!) so we took the boat out on a lake behind his brothers house. We had high hopes of catching some fish with live bait... but that didn't happen. :( I guess the fish had the day off too. We still had a great time!! And last night, my family came over for supper. We also opened up our "new" Yahtzee game. I put new in quotation marks because it was given to us as a wedding gift, which was three years ago, and we had never opened it. ;o