just some pix

He eats now!

We love the phony smile look - O the pre-teen years what fun!

Bobby and Lil Ms. Thing


Yes he really is that color.

Steph drowning in Awana stuff - but she's still smiling!

Trying to convince his Aunt that he is 6ft. tall.

Proof that he really will do school work

Lori playing with Bear. Bear loved her because she would sneak her food ALL THE TIME!!!

Baby doing what she spent the whole weekend doing to Bobby - eating his head off

I'll leave it up to your own imagination

Geoffrey and Baby doing what dogs do best. She so wants to play with him and all he wants to do is be an Alpha snotty dog.

Geoffrey kissing Steph - of course he remembers his first mommy.

sleepy boy!

Sleepy kid and protective doggy!

Two very exhausted boys after a long VBS day.

Forgotten God

I loved the book. I am so blessed by how bold Francis Chan is about the things we so easily taint of the things of God. May God continue to pour wisdom, discernment and love upon this man.
I want to first say that Francis and I differ in our beliefs on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When I first sat down to read the book, I finished half of the book. Once I realized that we still hold our different opinion, I had to let God do some business with my heart. I realized that I would not be able to give the book it's full due with the way my heart was secretly thinking. I am so very blessed by his ministry that I knew until God fixed my slightly irritated heart, I wouldn't be able to receive all the GIANT nuggets that the rest of the book would hold. So the interesting thing is as I let God do business with my heart I began to really seek Him on some powerful truths about the Holy Spirit. What a journey this has been - one I am most grateful for.

I think one of the most profound things Francis talks about is the lack of the Holy Spirit in our Churches today. You see what we do is we put people in ministry according to what we see in them as their natural abilities. So whether you are someone who is saved or not, abiding or not, you still can function in the task and duties of your ministry. There becomes no need at all to really pray, to really seek God for His strength, for His empowerment of His Spirit. People are not fasting and praying at all. Look around at some of the churches that we know without a doubt are not Spirit lead. They grow, they seem to succeed, all the ministries are thriving and fun - they are a well oiled machine, yet there is no Spirit of God any where close to running their church. I think you get the picture. In fact I was so convicted when I read this because I know I am guilty of seeking people for ministry that I see are "gifted" yet knowing NOTHING about their real heart and private worship with God. So this happens so much of the time and then we wonder why we are not seeing real modern day miracles / signs and wonders / freedom in worship / 100 - 1000 of people coming out for prayer meetings. Well this is the reason. May God shine His light powerfully on this veil of deception that we all have allowed the enemy to win with. It's time to rip that veil!!! We have been given power like no other and yet we choose to crawl like the Caterpillar instead of flying like the butterfly. may we all become desperate for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. May we all stop the compromise that taints the name of God. May we all see our sin and repent before a Holy God so that THEN we can have healing from our bondages and live the remaining years of our lives in the restoration of His love.

Go get the book and read it!

And to expose our hearts to truth and consistently refuse or neglect to obey the impulses it arouses is to stymie the motions of life within us and, if persisted in,to grieve the Holy Spirit into silence.
A.W. Tozer

This is a painful truth that we ought to really take a look at.
How many times have you gone to Church to hear a great message or even read it for yourself and in the moment you are encouraged, exhorted and often reproved but you leave and do nothing with it. Well this is exactly what his quote is stating. We always want to know the will of God yet when that prompting inside of us happens we more times then not neglect it. In case you weren't sure, that prompting inside of us is the Holy Spirit who has been sent to live and dwell inside of us as believers to empower us to do the very will of God. So let me ask the tough question here do you really want to know the will for God for your life?

Did you know??????

Francis Chan has a new book - okay let me tell you when I got this phone call yesterday from Heidi, I could barely contain myself especially when she told me that it was about the neglect of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Well let's just say Bobby was ever so sweet of a husband and drove me over to Life Way THEN and there is was in all it's beauty - this brown book with a really cool graphic of a dove made out of pages of the Bible. very cool!!!
I grabbed it and let's just say I wanted to scream in excitement - I wanted to give Shabach!!!!!! for fear of having the workers there ask me to leave I somewhat contained my excitement. Okay I'll be honest I was sort of loud. Shoot who cares, I was excited!!!!!

Forgotten God
Reversing Our Tragic Neglect Of The Holy Spirit

If you already have your solid reading of the Word of God time and you have some extra time you may want to grab this one.

Obama to Address our Children

So it seems like everyone is really up in arms over this President Obama addressing the children September 8th. Well Let me offer possibly a different perspective. First let me go on record as saying that We at the Richardson house hold do not hold the same political views as our current President. Yes we too see that he is taking our Country straight into Socialism. Yes we see that the greatest help we give terrorist against our country is our tolerance and our President is giving us a fast one way ticket in that direction. So without turning this into why I do not agree with President Obama let me offer this up on the table. We do not want to be raising ignorant children who can not defend why they believe the things they believe. I will be allowing Aaron to view this speech. I will record it watch it live myself, then I will sit down with Aaron and have him watch it. I will be ready with many questions for him to consider as to why what our President is saying, even though it may seem good, why exactly it is not God's good. For us as a family we will approach this the same way we will approach the conversations as to why other religions are wrong and therefore are doomed for hell. You educate your kids. You give them the truth from the other side then you help them understand why it is against the Word of God and therefore can not be apart of our belief system. Tell me this have you ever seen a situation for a child where they were always told this is right that is wrong and never giving them any grounds for either, other than saying it's against God. Have you ever seen any of those children grow up to not rebel or to not completely walk away from their faith that they grew up with in their home. Or even have you ever seen any of those kids be able to effectively give an account for the things they say. The answer is no you haven't and neither have I.
Ok so fine we are all mad that this speech is going to happen. So what we need to do is get over it and turn this around in a way that brings truth. To stir up all this hate and bitterness is not productive at all. Help your kids win by grounding them with knowledge. Don't make them ignorant - please we have enough of those walking around. Let's give our kids a far chance at becoming young adults who can take information that sounds so good, perfect, loving, and kind and see it for what it really is and then be able to debate it with others who come against their belief systems. If we don't start this process with our kids we will raise yet another generation that so easily gets pulled into wrong teaching.
This my friend is the teaching of our children that blesses the Fathers heart.
1Peter 2:5
For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

Ok let me have it I know you are hot under the collar now.

it's been a year????

So It never seems to be the best conversation to have with anyone, so this is always my safe place to get it out and prayerfully feel better. If you choose to read this I'm just letting you know that it will surely be a bit all over the place. I just need to get this out. So this time last year I was spending every minute in the hospital with my dear friend Donna. Having just gotten the news that she would not be with us much longer. From the day we got that news in the hospital, to the day she went to be with our Lord Jesus from her living room, it was 7 weeks. 7 of the most difficult, complicated, insane, tender, loving, fulfilling, agonizing, painful, intimate, endearing, frustrating, horrific, beautiful moments in my entire life. How each one of those words can perfectly describe each day of a 7 week period is beyond me but they do and how perfectly fitting they are. I remember that day so vividly. It was a 'k' Tues. and I was missing a time of celebration with all my 'k' sisters to say goodbye to our dear friend Carrie who was leaving to move to Santa Barbra. The group was preparing to celebrate and I was at the hospital with Tony kissing my girl up before she was wheeled into surgery. Tony and I shared a really nice meal together, talking and opening up to one another in what was an eye opening surprising conversation so ordained by the Lord. As we went back up to the surgery waiting area, we barely sat down when up walked Dr. Brown with the look of agony. When he sat down and told us that she would not make it and all the words that came after that, I had no idea that breath was able to be sucked out of you like a vacuum. The many hours that followed are a bit to painful to even write about but they are forever in bedded in my heart and mind. The irony in one place a celebration to a dear friend because she is moving away but laughter is the thing in the air. Then across town the very opposite of a celebration is happening because we will be saying goodbye to a friend who is moving away in quit a different fashion. I wonder why the Lord chose it that way. I do know that His way is always best, and I do not doubt that.
I miss my friend. I know that what we shared together in friendship is a rare, treasured gift. But SHOOT sometimes I get a bit self focused and grieve the lose and hate that I won't have THAT friendship again.
I miss our phone conversations through the night hours. Now I know she would have been perfectly able to go to bed at a normal time but she hated that I was not capable of doing so. Therefore, we would talk all night seriously all night. We would pray, we would solve every single issue that Children's ministry ever had. We would share everything we had studied in the Word that day with one anotherand often would end up doing a phone Bible study together. We would grieve for our friends who didn't share our love for prayer, worship and studying the Word of God. We would try to come up with clever ways to encourage them in the very things that we found the greatest joy in. Gosh what I would do for another one of those all nighters.
I think most people would find it interesting to know that Donna and I didn't get to go out and date. In fact Donna and I never once ever shared a meal together alone in a restaurant. I remember one Mother's Day all her and I wanted was to be together alone shopping at Walmart. We did get that wish and well let's just say it got interrupted after 1 hour from a husband that was wondering when we were coming back. lolololl ahahahaha - that still cracks me up. Tony Thompson you are a funny man. Bobby was outside playing with the kids and you were in the house watching some sporting thing alone. Good grief! Donna and I laughed about that all the way home that day well after she said a few other things first. We knew that our friendship just wouldn't ever have the luxury of dating.
I'm gonna continue this later - I have hubby calling and he's gonna be off to baseball in a few so I need to spend a bit of time with him before he's off being Mr. HR hitter.

School's In - and I feel like ranting a bit.

So most people get real happy when it's time for kids to go back to school. However, as a home school mom this isn't exactly my emotion attached to starting a new school year. Aaron is in the 6th grade and to think that I have been in this home school mindset for 7 years now makes me wonder just why am I not any better at it, or why don't I enjoy it any more then I do. Why do I still have the same daily frustrations with Aaron. Why why why why why???. Home schooling for me is not a way of life. Now I know many of you home school moms are probably getting ready to throw a tomato at my head right about now for saying what you would consider such blasphemy. Well home schooling is simple the way I chose or better yet the way God has chosen for now, for me to educate my son. Trust me each year I beg Him to allow me to stop and so far the answer has been "No persevere". I do not subscribe to a one way, one mindset of education. O O there it is again "outlandish" statement that no good christian home school mom would ever say, at least not out loud. There is very little I like about homeschooling. But for my current state of ranting allow me to list the things I enjoy then I will get to the good stuff what I don't enjoy.
1. I love the freedom it gives us as a family - days on days off.
2. I like that my son can work at his level and speed.
3. I like that I can let Aaron sleep until 9am if I want so that I have more time with my Jesus.
4. I like that there will be a day that I will look back and just maybe see that I have grown as a person because of it.
5. I like kickin it in PJ's as long as we want.
6. I LOVE the organization of it. I could write lesson plans for days. If the success of my home school life was based on my ability to organize and do lesson plans then O I so have you all beat. But as we know it's the execution of the lesson plans that matter - - UUGGHHH! good grief!

What I do not like:
1. The daily battle that I endure from my son who despises learning.
2. The frustration I get when I just can't help him understand something.
3. That there are days that Aaron finds it better to fight me for 3-5 hours for something simple then to just do the 20min. exercise.
3. I really do not enjoy teaching so therefore it makes the daily life of homeschooling an act of obedience for me.
4. That somehow in this home school world most mom's think there is one way and one way only to do this and apparently they have the answer and everyone else is wrong and they find great pleasure in talking about that. Never does it cross their mind that they are the very source of much division in the christian community. I sit back and if it wasn't so pain staking sad I would be amused. Okay I didn't tell the truth I am still slightly amused. It is sad though that they can't see the division they bring about, all in the name of education.
5. There are actually home school groups out there that if you do not file your own affidavit or belong to certain Christian ISP's you are not welcomed to join their group. And in some cases they won't even allow their kids to associate with your kid. WOW - now they would never say it as blunt as I have but we all know it is very much the truth.

So school is in and I'm in it for yet another year. How I wish I enjoyed it like so many of my friends. But so far that is not my story. At our church we have a home school group. It is very large and we do allow all facets of homeschooling families to join. I actually sit on the leadership board for the time been for the main purpose of doing everything I can to fight against the division that this home school world so produces. We are pioneering a different way of looking at it and prayerfully we are breaking down walls but I can assure you it has come at such a cost and when it comes down to it most really don't see that the division is a problem. I do and I know my Lord does to. So there is my rant after 1 complete week of being back to school. How ever let me say that this first week did go better than I expected and for that I am grateful to the Lord for giving me extra help this week.
I suppose it's possible that some may read this and find it offensive. I pray not. Maybe my delivery is raw but it is 100% how I believe.

Just having this conversation yesterday I couldn't help myself but to post this devotion I found in my inbox. To understand these words is to understand why we all are being sifted, pruned, sandpapered, or whatever word you want to attach to your current situations. I so believe we are in the days that the heavier Hand of God is upon us to bring that clearer knowledge of who is truly His. may we always allow God to examine our own hearts to keep us far far far away from this very tradgedy.

Day By Day By Grace
Bob Hoekstra
August 24, 2009

An "Unpopular" Prophetic Promise of Apostasy

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. (1 Timothy 4:1-2)

As we continue to alternate between "precious promises" and "unpopular" promises, we come to a prophetic promise of apostasy. Among those who are actually drifting into apostasy, this promise is certainly "unpopular." Additionally, in a church world that wrongly accepts what sounds positive and rejects what sounds negative (instead of rejecting error and accepting truth), this promise is often met with disinterest or, worse, disdain.

"The faith" is the message of the word of God. It is the divine truth in which we are to place our faith, our trust. It especially includes the good news of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our present promise forewarns that there will be those who fall away from "the faith" as the days press closer and closer to the end of the church era. "In latter times some will depart from the faith." Since this is a departure, they seemed to adhere to the word of God for a season. Then they turned away from it. If they remain active in the church world, their message will no longer reflect the true content of the Scriptures. Peter gave a similar warning. "There were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them" (2 Peter 2:1). As sure as Israel had false prophets, the church would have false teachers.

Paul provided some insights into their path of apostasy. They would be "giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons." Paying attention to concepts that were perpetrated by demonic deception would result in errors in their doctrine. The devil and his army of evil spirits are intent on confusing and distorting the teaching of the word of God. Typically, such errors feed man's fleshly desires to glorify self.

These apostates would also be "speaking lies in hypocrisy." Not only would their teaching be erroneous, their lives would be marked by falsehoods related to pretense. They would add untrue testimony to their inaccurate message. Perhaps the reports of their ministerial prowess would be grossly exaggerated.

They would also be "having their own conscience seared with a hot iron." They would teach errors and live lies until their consciences were no longer convicted of sin. We are forewarned. Such apostates undoubtedly abound in these last days.

Here I am

Gosh where to begin? The business of my summer has been insane but insanely great even in what seems like a very dark valley. I suppose because I can see the very Hand of God doing a radical, difficult work. But the key to that sentence is I see His Hand. There is something about hard times that when you see Jesus in it there is a peace that passes all understanding - WOW that's good, I bet I read that in a really GREAT BOOK ;0)
So almost a month since I last posted let's see if I can recap my last month.
CCEA VBS 2009 - God Odyssey - The Wonders of God
I love VBS I think it's pretty much my favorite thing we do in Children's Ministry. There is SSSOOO much hard work that goes into it and it brings us all to the point of insanity / frustration / and complete utter dependence on God but then to see it happen and watch the kids get it. It's so great. Now I would say contrary to what anyone else has to say, I have the greatest job for VBS. Worship - and we get the kids for 1hour and 15 min. just the worship team part of it. That's right you heard me right. You see we entertain the worker kids that check in 45 min before anyone else and we have a blast. Then we have worship and this year we had 370ish kids. Can you picture 370 kids along with about 150 workers singing songs like Shine - Matt Redman / Today is The Day - Lincoln Brewster and many others just like it. It's insane these kids are singing and dancing and lifting their hands high high high to Jesus praising and worshiping. Seriously it's the best. I've been to a few Worship Workshops over the years for Children's Ministry and all of the challenges that they always are addressing that happen in Children's Worship, none of it has been our issues. God gave about 9 years ago a vision for kids worship and we have grown and flourished in that vision. I am so spoiled to head this ministry up now for that past I don't maybe 7 years, I really can't remember. Sometimes I wonder what I ever did right in my life to deserve this ministry. So anyways VBS was wonderful and lives were changed, souls were saved and God did what only He can do.

CCEA Pure Passion 2009
This was our Churches 2nd annual Purity Conference. Now Bobby and I worked it last year. He heads up the security team for most all events at our Church. And I staff the janitorial workers so I am there to oversee that and to lend a helping hand wherever. This event is for the Youth. Well this year God seemed to think it would pretty hysterical to have me MC the girls part of the weekend. Well I won't get into all the details about that cause it's still weird for me to talk about it but with 15min to spare I went from knowing I would MC the Q&A time to MCing the entire girls event. So big deal you may say - - WELL people think that I am very comfortable in front of a crowd of people with a mic but that couldn't be farther from the truth. What I do in Children's Ministry really is an act of God and those that know my journey know what it took all those years ago to even get me upfront in front of kids to lead worship. I suppose because I have this out loud BIG personality that one would think, ' o she's not shy' - well yea I am in fact I'm so deeply insecure that it keeps me from many things. So I guess I haven't been letting God deal with that ugly sin in my life fast enough because He clearly had this event for my growth. Truth is as much as I was dreading it and was desperate for as much prayer as I could rally up when all was said and done I knew my life was different. I won't even go into the many backwards reasons God had me to do it but the change in my heart for these teenage girls. Okay I'm gonna be real here and you will no doubt think poorly of me but here it goes. Up to this point I pretty much was hands up in front of my face with 99.9% of teenage girls. Sort of wrote them off. I won't go into the reasons for that but that is the cold hard truth of it all. So God calling me to an event like this really didn't make any sense at all. Something happened that weekend in my heart. I was broken and God gave me this extraordinary love for these girls. I saw myself in them and all the yuck from my bad choices in my youth. A messed up desperately needing attention young girl who needed to know she was worth anything. She had a purpose. She was desperately loved by the God of the Universe and He chose her. I found me! in them and the connection happened. I get these girls and it scares me that I feel like I have a purpose with them. So what in the World is My Jesus doing in me?

So I started off talking about a hard season and ended up sharing a couple of the most wonderful gifts that God gave me over the past month. That's funny to me - I suppose the sweet things of Jesus are the key things at the forefront of my mind - as it should be!!!!

A touch of hard stuff - okay I can not go into the circumstances but this is what I have come to understand this month in the hard stuff.
We all live in the consequences of our sins and our families sin and so on and so on just like the Bible says. That's life we can't get away from that. So everything puts these scales up around our heart and it's God's job to break them down during the course of our lives because He has created us to worship Him and we will worship something the question just becomes what?. So I hear people say things like, 'if I were only single', 'if I were only married', 'if i could have a different job' and so on you get the picture. Well this is the deal. God is going to use no matter what is in our lives to break us of the bondage of our sins, and to remove those scales that we have put over our hearts. So fine if you were single sure the issues of that would be ok but let me tell you God would then in fact use whatever is in your life to break you. Do you get what I'm saying. We all need to stop fighting the process of what God is using in our lives to refine us. Stop praying it away and surrender to it and know that if it wasn't health issues, broken friendships, depression, marriage, weight issues, job issues, prodigal children issues, raising kid issues it would be something else and hurt just as much. So what do we do.????stop looking at you - I need to stop looking at me. We need to look to Jesus and work on our relationship with Him and not for the sole purpose of fixing our issues but for the sole purpose of knowing Him. Somewhere in there I can promise you we will find peace and joy in the midst of yuck. It doesn't have to make sense the greater things of God rarely do. But our Lord is taking "THE CHURCH" not just CCEA but "THE CHURCH" through that refining time of separating the wheat and the weeds. The real intent of our hearts are being exposed and we are yelling and screaming through the process but we need to find Jesus to See Jesus and hold on with everything we have. It's gonna be a bumpy road my friends.

So now it's time for me to go get ready for my day. I need to pack as I am heading to the mountains this weekend. I can't wait to see what God is going to do this weekend. I'll share the details of this unexpected getaway with you later. My prayer is
Holy Spirit Come!!!!!

always remember
keep chasing righteousness - it matters!!!!

Chasing Righteousness!!!

okay so many know that this is my life's catch phrase. Sometimes I think I should put it on magnets, t-shirts and everywhere in my life just to keep that constant reminder. I wont write about how it came about as I know I did that about a year or so ago. What I love is that God continues to pull Me to a life of chasing righteousness. How faithful my Jesus is, that even when things seem to get it's hardest and most difficult to only look at the Living God behind every situations, He barges in and brings in peace, love, comfort and truth to the situation. Of course He only barges in once you put your hand on that door knob and turn it to open it, then he'll jump in I promise.
So today I read one of my favorite Blogspots, David Wilkerson Today http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/
and he said the most profound thing,
"The Bible could not make this any clearer. Simply put, righteousness is believing the promises of God, being fully persuaded he’ll keep his word."

So well put - love it and so thankful for this reminder that puts me on the road to continue to live a life..... CHASING RIGHTEOUSNESS!!!!

Hard Days REALLY REALLY Hard Days

Why is it that when the tidal wave comes I get frustrated, I think that the easy road is best, I so easily get critical of those involved that seem to be in the wrong. Why can't I learn. It's the same ol' lesson time and time again. I so identify with the Children of Israel - you know they sure get a bum wrap don't they. I get it I really do. This flesh of ours is really pretty pathetic. Somehow we think we have rights - now that's a laughing matter because if we were to simple believe the Word of God we will see that we have no rights EVER, it's all about dying to self daily, picking up our cross and walking the hard road that is laid out for us by a loving, Father who needs us to see our deceitfully wicked hearts and depend completely on Him. Knowing that the harder road from point A to B is going to refine us to strip us of the bondage we have allowed the enemy to ensnare us with. The hard road is the Good road.
"When the going gets hard the hard gets good"

But Lord I want to be heard - "Just Pray"
But they are wrong - "Just Pray"
But It's going to cause great pain - "Just Pray"
But It's compromise Lord - "Just Pray"
But But But But But - " Susan Just Pray"

So today I will pray

but tomorrow Lord will you help me again?

Lessons from Exodus 16:1-3

Exodus 16:1-3
1 And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. 2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

Observation / Application:
VS. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

Here they are 30 - 60 days after their departure and now they are already forgetting the hardship of life in bondage. Going back to Pharaoh seems far better to them then this unknown wilderness.
I see an interesting thing here 30 - 60 days in and now they are complaining. It’s interesting to me that this is so often my battle. When trying to depart from areas of sin that God exposes to me ( Idols) it’s usually around that 30 - 60 day marker that I to start feeling the tug to compromise what I know God has shown me. Why is that I wonder? I know in the beginning I’m passionate about what I need to do so early on it’s often pretty easy. My victory in doing the right thing carries me in encouragement but then somewhere along that 30 - 60 day marker, the passion begins to fade, the thoughts of compromise begin to take over my thoughts. To the point of actually being able to rationalize it. I think there is a pretty good chunk of wisdom here from God. The temptation to go back will come. Know it and make preparation for it. We don’t always have a Moses to push us through. So that must be the provision we need to make. We all need that Moses person who holds us accountable and helps fight that battle for us.
Right now with me and this med. for my RSL that I am taking, I did exactly this very thing. I talked to a couple of friends that I knew would be boldly honest with me to help me through this adjustment period. And I have a friend that when I can't stand it any more and I need to eat something that I’m craving I can call her and she will kick my butt. You see certain foods are not an option for me anymore my health / heart depends on me doing the right thing. All this stuff with my RSL med and my food allergies are key to living a life honoring God with His temple, my body.
So this should be the same with the things of God. We all need to have that person or persons that will keep us on that right road and when we begin to lose focus, they will boldly, lovingly guide us back. We can’t live without a Moses. If you have been then let me ask you, How’s that been working for you? To live a life for Jesus with only "yes people" around us will never allow us to grow very far. We need each other in that way God intended.
So who comes to your mind right now that is your Moses? Take a moment and thank Jesus for that friend.

Hebrews 10:23-26

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,

Jeremiah 18:4
The pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Yes i am marred but how grateful i am to a faithful, merciful Lord that will reshape me into another pot that will still be useful for His serve.

thank you Jesus!

Heavy on my heart - it's not going to be an enjoyable read. I just need this written down for myself.

Can you hear the Lord calling you to wake up, to stand firm? He is and we need to ready ourselves. Are you prepared for persecution? Are you ready for the Church to fall away? Are you ready for the most horrid of all circumstances to come flooding into your life? We pray and sing, 'Blessed be your name On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in the offering Blessed be your name', and 'Bring me anything that brings You glory And I know they'll be days When this life brings me pain But if that's what it takes to praise You Jesus, bring the rain'. Are you ready to be a person of your word now? Am I?????



We need to stop being about our comfort zone and realize that the day is drawing near that our Lord is taking us up to meet Him in the Heavens. Life will continue to get more and more difficult before that happens. Are you going to let the offense of a friend, a family member, a church leader draw you away into self preservation emotions and sin, or are you going to keep your eyes focused on the One who is allowing the hard stuff to come. To bring wisdom into your life to draw you to that sweet place from brokenness, Surrender. Is your current hardship exposing your truth, your real hearts condition? Good then it's doing it's job. Are you repenting, I mean really repenting before a Holy God who died on a cross for those sins. Are you on your knees repenting asking for forgiveness - you know the kind of repentance that breaks that chain of suffocation around you. Okay maybe you don't know that kind of repentance. You better figure it out. There is no greater place of freedom in Jesus then when we figure out that real repentance.

Gods calls us to GO and make Disciples. Are we doing that, are we even one of those Disciples? Do you even know what it looks like to be one? My heart is greatly convicted this morning knowing that when I read what a disciple is my life just doesn't match up. So what the heck am I doing with my life. We (I) have become a generational Christian nation that is all about us. How everything effects us. The sound system at church acts up and I get completely irritated running around looking for someone who can fix it. Sure God cares about that but do you see what I am saying. Does He care more about that then the person who desperately needs Jesus and they are right in front of me. I get more emotional about the sound system then I do this dying, hurting soul. Somehow I (we) have made service about us and not about them, the lost, the hurting, the dying.

Lord Jesus what has become of us. We have become the Church in Corinth that you gave great warnings about.

1Corinthians 11:17-34

As Tony Huy so Spirit filled put it on Saturday night - the church in Corinth was doing more harm then good. It became more isolated then congregational. It was full of division. It became more about indulging its self then giving. They were going through the motions but it was so not their reality. They had made church about them. They had forgotten to really REMEMBER.



Wow does any of this seem vaguely familiar? I sit here and with regrettable honesty I must say Yes Lord I have made church about me. How did I allow such deception to dominate my life?

I have lived church with a greater purpose of isolation than anything else.

So what now Lord Jesus, forgive me for making church something you never intended it to be. This day Lord show me my error and get me back on the right path. I do Lord Jesus desire to be Your disciple.

1Corinthians 6:12 10:23
Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial nor is it constructive,
Everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything.

"k" Group Leaders Appreciation Dinner - Darya's

Dinner at Darya's

Me & Melissa - she's my friend!!!!! - isn't she cute - I'm so glad we get to serve together.


Melody & Jenny - look at those perfect smiles - someone call Colgate!

Shelley & Dana - these are the nice ones of the group. I never knew people could be so nice.


Jennifer & Lyn - wait a minute these are the nice ones of the group. Am I the only one not nice?


Yes this is what they did ALL NIGHT!!!! ALL NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

Karen and Kim - Kim I didn't mean to put a handicap label by your head - sorry

Karen - I love the color of your hair - to think that was the color I was going for - - hhhmmm well at least it's in the same color palette - well sort of.

Susan & Linda - I think if you really could blend these two women that you very

well would have the perfect woman. Don't tell them I said that I like them to think that I believe they are greatly flawed.

Lori & Becky - They have started the short hair leaders club - I think they just wanted an excuse to hang with each other. I'm offended.


Melody & Nidia - perfect little Angels - see the folded hands - aaawwwweeee

This looks forced

Susan & Shannon - see shannon it's a good picture. You know I was hoping for one of those scary ones. When you are as cute as you are it's a great releif to some of us that you take bad pictures.

Jennifer & Joanne - yes I do believe Joanne really is that short. Or maybe it's that Jen is that super tall. WOW


Deanne, Rochelle, and Lyn -Lyn over here look at me. I'm wondering what she was looking at that was more intriguing than I ;0)

Melissa C and Lori - pretty smiles !

but don'tcha get the impression they are both thinking something about the photographer? (me)

Steph and Steph - good grief look at Finn she looks 20. It's gotta be the Avon.

Nidia, Steph and Joannie - see how short she is I told you. Yes I see that Nidia is too.

Aren't they adorable. I wanna be their friend.



And to think they run the office - frightening!!!



Danette and Lori - Wow they're really close.

Okay what's with all the attached heads?

Yes a Mohawk

Pictures of Donna's Kids

Every year Donna would get the kids pictures done and well I wanted to do that for Tony for Father's day this year. Here are some of them. Thank you Lisa and Jennifer for making this happen.

Happy Dad's Day!

Bobby -
Outside of my salvation you are the greatest gift I have ever been given. I could have never have dreamt up the quality of a Dad you are to Aaron. Your constant love, patience, and guidance with him is a beautiful thing to watch and I count myself most blessed having you as my husband. I praise our sweet Jesus for giving Aaron to us. You are a good man Bobby Richardson and I love you dearly. I pray your day with Aaron out there paint balling will be one of great fun and memories.

Daddy - Happy Daddy's Day !! I love you and miss you so much. If I could fly to Montana today to even just give you a giant hug and a kiss I would. I pray that today you feel that constant showering of peace, love, and joy knowing that you are an amazing Daddy. I love our long talks or better yet that you are so patient with me that you listen to my long talks (hahaha) You have always, my entire life made me feel like I mattered and what I have to say is important. Now truth be told I'm sure everyone else might want to smack your bum for that one because now I believe I need to be heard (hahahah) yes daddy you have created this monster!!!!
I love you Daddy - xoxoxoxo
p.s take care of Mom for us and love her up real good - I hear she is sportin quite the tan these days - I bet she looks HOT!!! - she's always been a hottie. I love it when people say i look like her.

Dad John - Happy Dad's Day!! today I pray you have sweet joy knowing that you have always been a kind, loving Dad. How blessed I am to get to have you. I pray you always know how important you are to me. Your love of my Jesus has always resonated loudly to me and I am so thankful for your example. When are you coming over so I can cook you up something really yummie? You know I love to feed you. I miss you and pray that we will see you and Di very soon. God bless you dad - I love you much!!!

What do you have for me tonight Lord?

So I'm sitting here in the CM office killing some time and I got to thinking about tonight's service and I wonder what God has laid on Tony's heart to teach from the pulpit. Tony Huy is one of our Pastors actually he is our Youth pastor and every now and then we get the privilege to have him take Bob's pulpit for a Sat/Sun service. If you haven't ever heard Tony well you are missing out, go to our Churches website and pull something up of his to listen to.
Calvary Chapel East Anaheim
Trust me you won't be disappointed. Tony has this way of bringing Bible people to life and making you feel like you are there living it with them understanding who they were and why they made decisions that they did. Very gifted / very insightful / and every time he teaches I walk away with a huge nugget to chew on for sometime. So tonight I eagerly await to see what God deems necessary to speak to us through this man.
I always approach each service with a question at the top of my note pad. Usually seeking God on wisdom for something that I need answers and His guidance with. It's a fun way to listen to service, not to mention that it keeps me focused on me and not sitting there thinking that so and so should be listening to this message. I love that I pretty much always get some chuck of wisdom that takes me to either complete answer or it gives me a spring board to which direction I need to be seeking in. So all day I've been praying about a couple of things and asking God for wisdom so tonight that will be at the top of my note page.
I was going to write the questions here then I realized that someone could very easily misunderstand the questions so I'm opting out of full disclosure. I guess i should be thankful God laid that on my heart before I hit publish now.

one last thing......

keep chasing righteousness!!!!

Where He Leads Me - I will follow (?)

What a difficult season this is right now. Of course can't we always say that from one season to another. Growth is His purpose and surrender should be ours so getting those 2 things to blend in perfect harmony is the real challenge. Well at least that's my story right now.
This is always the most busy time of year for me, which I love because it's VBS time. The rub right now is that I am taking this med for my RLS that is really messing me up. I'm giving it the proper time to level out in my body but I'm pretty much very anti anything that messes with your state of mind. I figure battling my flesh is hard enough let alone having to battle it with an uncooperative state of mind. Or it blocks out something that God is trying to get me to deal with, SIN so that I can be more devoted to Him. This is my thing, if we are anxious, uptight, stressed, whatever you want to call it, well it's from sin in our life, somewhere somehow we allowed this sin to stay and now it has caused issues that we can barely even recognize the original sin because we are so focused on our state of mind of the above mentioned. Then there is the part that it takes away the ability to deeply touch the Lord (intimacy) and that absolutely freaks me out because that is my craving, my source of strength is to be able to be intimately worshiping my Jesus in prayer, in worship, in quietness. Taking this med was an act of submission to my dear husband who desperately wants his wife to be able to sleep. The lack of sleep from my entire life had begun to take some drastic health issues on my body. My Dr basically said until we get you to sleep at night your body will not heal. So there in lies my challenge. So I'm taking this med, sleeping far better then I ever have in my intire life except when I was pregnant but now this intensity I feel through out the day is driving me crazy. So enough of this - God help me see even but one purpose for this during a season that I need to be so much about your work. Lord please show me that You are in this!
Then it began to come over me the past couple of weeks and when He began to speak to me I realized these are Words that He has been preparing me for all year long.
Meekness
Meekness is a calm temper of mind, not easily provoked.

I have been forced to be calm and quiet, well quiet for me ;0) desperately trying to not react to the things going on around me. I have learned many things along the way so far. I know I am far from really understanding meekness because my inner heart is far from being meek - so really what I guess I am currently living is false meekness. You know what I mean when it shows on the out side but so not the truth for the inside. It's just like humility. You can act humble but inside your acknowledging to yourself that you are humble - hahaha that cracks me up!
Back to meekness I read this radio broadcast everyday online and the past 2 days it's been on this very thing. She states it far better than I so I will share some of her thoughts.
Meekness matters to God. You can’t avoid that in the Scripture. Zephaniah 2:3 says we are to seek meekness. Colossians 3:12 says we are to put on meekness. First Timothy 6:11 says we are to pursue meekness.

Psalm chapter 37 tells us "the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in the abundance of peace" (verse 11). Now that’s something I’d like to have. People who are not meek do not have an abundance of peace. They can’t have settled hearts and minds. But the person who is meek can be delighted with an abundance of peace. Peace of mind. Peace of heart. Peace in relationships.

Psalm 25:9 “The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach his way” If we want God to guide us, to teach us the way that we should go, if we want to know good judgment, if we want to have insight and wisdom and understanding, we have to be meek.
Meek people are:
teachable people
humble people
open to counsel.


There was so much fantastic stuff in that message but the bottom line is this is me, this is where God has me, this is my training ground right now and He is using this season of me taking a med that provokes what is obviously already in my heart to be exposed to myself so that I can come to repentance, come to consecration and then grow in what God requires of me as His - Meekness!

I must say as I have been more silent I have been able to see so much more around me and this has given me great insight for prayer - so somehow I pray this makes even but a little bit of sense to you. Everything always comes back to God is desiring more of us for Him and the question becomes AM I WILLING TO WALK THIS HARD ROAD RIGHT NOW IN ORDER TO BE MORE LIKE HIM???? I pray the answer to that is YEs but we will see.
The proof is in the fruit!

Our VBS theme song this year - God You Reign!

I'm stealing this from David Wilderson's Blog - it's to good not to post.

Recently I reread the life story of George Muller who, in the mid-1830s, cared for over 2,000 orphans in England – all by faith in God. Muller was a known as the man who got answers to his prayers. Before he died, he had listed in his journals over 50,000 answers to prayer.

When asked how he determined the will of God on any matter, Muller listed the following steps he believed were necessary:
1. “I get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to any particular matter.”
2. “I do not leave the result to feelings or simple impressions. That can make one open to great delusions.”
3. “I seek God’s will through, or in connection with, his Word. If you look to the Spirit without the Word, you open yourself to delusion.”
4. “I consider providential [God-controlled] circumstances.”
5. “I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me.”
6. “I make sure I have a clear conscience before God and man.”
7. “Every time I listened to men instead of God, I made serious mistakes.”
8. “I act only when I am at peace, after much prayer, waiting on God with faith.”

Those who walk by faith, seeking only God’s perfect will, are often sorely tested and tried. More and more in my own life, I am finding out how important diligent prayer and Bible reading are. Sadly, not many of God’s people pray diligently nowadays. Instead, there is much TV viewing and very little of waiting on God.

When I give myself to prayer, my faith rises. And when I feed on God’s Word, my confidence in his power to lead and help me increases. The Lord becomes my banker, my advisor, my attorney.

May you find him doing the same for you.

We don’t think “God has things for me to do today”, we think we have things we need to do and so we go to God to help us.

He becomes the means rather than the end – Francis Chan

Exodus 15:22-25 Bitter waters made sweet

Ex. 15:22-25
22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24 And the people complained against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" 25 So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them. And there He tested them,


The Lord often uses unusual things to accomplish His purposes. This stick is something that can so easily be overlooked. Looks like nothing special in fact there are so many of them around that they basically look the same. No one but God would have ever known the potential in this stick just laying there in the dessert. But God sees it God sees the potential and He knew that this stick could be used by Him to save millions of lives. Even if you are not aware of the things that God has put in you, trust me He has and He will use you if you will only but be willing, be present. Just let go and let God. God has a purpose for you!
another little thing here - isn't it comforting to realize that the God of the Universe notices even this normal, nothing spectacular stick. He saw it and He used it greatly.
another thought on a more yucky side
Here we can see this picture of who we ( I ) can so easily be. We just come from a season where we have seen the wonders and love of God shown towards to us, then we come to a little pond (new circumstance/ trial) and what do we do, we complain. Good grief just days prior we were praising God for all that He is and all that He has done. But today we have a need and it just doesn’t seem like God will help us with this one. It does not matter that He has NEVER failed us. This time O No He Just Might. Good grief do you see what I am saying and how absolutely crazy it sounds. Yet we do it. In fact we always will. I think the prayer needs to be that even if our first response is slightly panic our very next thought will be “BUT GOD” . Truth is trials are meant for us to see our weakness, to see our absolute dependence on a Holy, Righteous, Loving God.
So let me ask what pond are you stressing over today? I have this really great way to make the stress go away. Ready you may want to take notes on this one. Here it is
Praise God!
Yep you read it right that’s it just begin to praise God, out loud. For all that He has done and all that He is – just praise Him. Gosh that’s good I wish it had been my original thought ;0)

I was thinking about this bitter water. Feeling the conviction of where my own heart is bitter these days. O sure it’s camouflaged by many things that most people would never even have a clue that there was anything wrong but who am I kiddin, surely not Jesus.
So I looked at this passage and read it over and over and over again. Thinking about what it looked like then, and wondering what it could look like now for us, for me in my heart today. To cry out to the Living, Merciful, Gracious God. He will give me a stick. A stick that represents Calvary. Where a stick and the blood that was shed on it become a way for salvation, forgiveness, healing, a way to be set free.
So today go ahead be set free - it is there for the taking.

Weekend Family Visit

Just a typical Josh and Aaron moment. These two are a mess but they are our cute mess.

xoxoxox

Can you see how he really felt about getting this picture taken.

Aaron, Hannie, and Josh - we really do raise them to love Jesus

not sure what I'm supposed to say about this - just pray for him

Mommy and daughter - sweet kodak moment