Challenge

I love when God uses multiple people to bring me a message personally designed to target my heart. My pastor preached this morning about our personal responsibility to grow in the knowledge of God, by taking action and working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. He preached from 2 Peter 1:5-8... it is OUR job to ADD to our faith, ADD to our virtue, etc. etc. THEN , I listen to Pastor Terry Black ADD to that message by challenging us to serve others as a means of growing in our relationship with the Lord. He challenged us to let God be the potter, forming us to fulfill our original purpose of being a servant. He told of a man who had only been in the church a short time. The church was teeming with people, and they were short on Sunday School teachers. The pastor handed the man a Bible and said, "See that room of young 11 year old boys? They need a teacher today. Would you do it?" The man was stunned. TODAY? NOW? But but but but.... there were many excuses, but the pastor simply said, "You'll learn." The man was challenged at that moment to GROW into ministry. If we could all desire to serve in whatever capacity God chooses... He formed us... He's the Potter... He knows what purpose we were formed for. Although I do not feel I am "called" to be lead musician at our church, I have been gifted with the talent to play and sing. I could make a dozen excuses to avoid being behind that piano service after service... but really, when I serve in that capacity to fill a need, I grow spiritually, because God touches me and ministers to me every time I play. When people come to me to tell me a certain song I played targeted their particular situation and blessed them, then I grow spiritually and I am drawn to the Lord in a spirit of thanksgiving. Our church is currently experiencing a shortage in Sunday School teachers, and I am thinking about the challenge. Praying about the challenge. If I wait for the Spirit to "move me", I may miss out on an opportunity to grow. Pray for me as I pray about this new challenge in my spirit. God will put me where He wants me. I trust Him completely. I desire to grow closer to the Lord, however He sees fit, and however hard I am willing to "work" at it. Thank you Jesus.

Posts added

Hello! Take a moment to scroll down through the page and see some of the posts I have added or updated. I don't want you to miss the video of the world's youngest preacher (hilarious) or pictures of Adam's most recent belt ceremony. Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle

VICTORY... by hook or by crook....

Ladies and gentlemen.... you really have to know all the tricks to get around Blogger's major quirks. THANK GOD for the Picasa program! There's more than one way to skin a cat, and thankfully more than one way to post pictures to your blog.

HERE are the pictures of the Chargers in action! They played the Patriots first, then the Buccaneers. What a fun day!!! (You can click on the pictures to see them BIGGER).

We also took some amazing video footage... I SO wish we could post it on here. We didn't use a digital recorder... just a regular one. So I'm not sure I will be able to put anything on here. Oh well. Trust me when I say that this is going to be a fun football season! GO CHARGERS!! GO NICK!!

blogger is sooooo aggravating sometimes...

Well.... to my family and friends who have been waiting all day for pictures from Nick's first football game.... you will have to wait longer. Blogger absolutely refuses to let me upload any pictures. I've been trying since 2pm this afternoon... it is now 11:30 pm. Hmmmm.... I am totally frustrated. AND THE PICTURES ARE AWESOME! He did such a great job today! It was really exciting. But.... you will just have to wait until Blogger decides to cooperate with me to see that for yourself.

Sorry.

GO CHARGERS!!!!

My oh my.... my baby is a football player!







And Dad is all proud because Nick is playing center, just like he did in high school! Tomorrow is our first actual game. We will be taking the video camera, and hopefully a few pictures with the camera to post here on the blog.

I am feeling my age... one son entering middle school, and one playing football. Wow. Slow down! LOL! Anyway, just wanted to share this "mom moment" with you all. Being a mom never has a dull moment!

Train up a child in the way they should go.......

This is so adorable! This is the grandson of a preacher in Mississippi.... PREACH IT!

Getting closer to black belt

My goodness... it has been exactly 17 months since Adam started this martial arts path. And now he is at the rank of Brown Stripe. What's left? 2nd red, 1st red, and BLACK. Yes, we are getting close! Here are a couple pictures from today's belt ceremony.



Now, granted, these last senior belt levels are TOUGH and take a long time to complete, and he has to do a black belt project before heading to California, but really... we couldn't be prouder of him! GO ADAM!!!

A call to deep prayer

Children. They have a special place in the heart of God. Jesus told his bickering adult disciples that whoever did not humble himself as a little child could not enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who stand in the pulpit and point at our young children saying, "They are the church of tomorrow" are sadly mistaken. They are the church of RIGHT NOW! Just listen to these children intercede with gut-wrenching prayer! Our children have been born into a dark world where, outside of Jesus, there is NO HOPE. None. They are told they are worthless... evolving from hydrogen gas, with no purpose for living. They are told life is cheap. Suicide. Shooting up their friends in school, killing their parents... no hope. But the children being raised in the church? They KNOW who their hope is! And their prayers are EXCEEDINGLY POWERFUL in the sight of God. Give a listen......

Holy Spirit filled Praying Children

Our church will shortly be entering a time of prayer and fasting. I want my prayers to be effective and pleasing to God. I want to move His hand in this last hour, bringing a sweeping revival that no man can take credit for! Today in our nation's capitol, thousands of children will be gathered at the mall to PRAY for our nation and for an end to abortion. Their prayers WILL be powerful. Their prayers WILL be heard from heaven. Will God hear YOUR prayer? Will you join your voice with theirs? I intend to! Take the time today to lock yourself away and cry out to God as passionately as these incredible children! I don't know about you, but I am sick of apathetic religion, and ready for a white hot move of the Spirit of God in our churches and our nation!

Jesus is the Reason Why I Sing!!!!!

Fireproof

Just wondering... how many of you who read my blog have clicked on the banner at the top of my blog regarding the new movie "Fireproof"? How many of you are planning to go see it on opening day? Well, if you live in Vermont, you probably are NOT planning to go see it.... unless you plan to drive 3 1/2 hours to Manchester, NH or Albany, NY. It is opening in 44 days. It is showing NOWHERE in Vermont. Vermont is one of only SEVEN states nationwide that is NOT showing this movie about godly marriage between a man and a woman. Could it be that the liberal, homosexual spirits have such a stronghold on Vermont that this movie cannot even be shown? My God is bigger than that! Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world. Please pray for Vermont (and RI, ME, NJ, SD, UT, and WY). Those are the other 6 states not showing this incredibly important movie. The devil wants nothing more than to destroy the institution of marriage, because it is the visible model of the relationship between Jesus Christ and His church. The devil hates that. We MUST get this movie in a VT theater! There is great power in unified prayer!

VICTORY REPORTS!

Although very tired, I must post! Today was our youth yard sale, and although only one teen and my two boys and three adults showed up, we had a marvelous time of fellowship with each other, and made over $200 in the process! God blesses your effort if it is for His purpose.

Okay, time for TWO praise reports!

1. My brother's best friend had a small stroke (TIA) and ended up in the hospital for an MRI. Although he suffered no lasting effects from the stroke, the MRI showed a sizable mass in the center of his brain (obviously in an inoperable location). He called me to tell me and I promised to pray. First brain biopsy came back inconclusive. More prayer. Second brain biopsy.... NO mass, NO cancer, NO infection, NO anything! My God rocks!!!!

2. In case you haven't noticed, my blog has a short list of other blogs I read consistently over on the left. One is called "Henry's Challenge". My dear "mom" Winnie (Jason's dad's wife) in Maryland asked me to put Henry on my prayer list. Her ladies' prayer group has been praying for him since he was diagnosed with medulloblastoma (a cancerous tumor in the cerebellum of the brain) on October 13, 2007 at the age of 3. Well, this past Thursday, Henry had another MRI, and this one was CLEAN! No sign of brain tumor at all!!! What an amazing God! Two brain tumors in one week!! YAY! Nothing is impossible with my Jesus!

So when you are done reading this post, please stop and take a moment to rejoice and thank God for His goodness and faithfulness. He is WORTHY of ALL our praise and thanks!

Good night to all!

Steeple Chase -pushing the limit

Greetings one and all! Today, Adam took on a unique challenge called the annual Moo Gong Do Steeple Chase. As in the famous horse racing, it is an afternoon/evening of 3 hour long MGD classes in a row, where the students go from school to school. The first class was in Shelburne and Master Allen worked them hard from the get go! They trained out in the field house where they did lots of running, kicking, and even an obstacle course! I don't mind telling you they all worked up a sweat! :)

Next, it was on to the Essex school, where JGN Allen gave them another major workout, complete with extended warmups, lots of sparring and double time hand techniques, and a cool down consisting of tight fist knuckle pushups and situps.



By the time they got to the South Burlington school, they were looking quite fatigued.... but Master Nerbak worked them hard with one steps and more sparring.





They ended with a sharing session about what it means to use MGD to "find yourself", which was an excellent discussion about using life's experiences to discover things about yourself you never would have known if you didn't have that particular experience. I am not sure Adam heard much of it... he was so wiped out that he looked as if he was totally "checked out" during the discussion! LOL!

This is Adam smiling because HE MADE IT!!!!!!

Those who participated in the steeple chase went out to Pizza Hut to celebrate surviving three grueling hours of workout.... they ate, let me tell you! Adam ordered a meat lover's pizza!

I am very proud of Adam... he's not sure he'll try it again next year, but he said perhaps once he is a black belt he'll give it another go. Even so, great job, my son!!!! (My guess is he will sleep until about 10 tomorrow! hee hee hee!)

Something I am considering...

Not that this is really blog worthy information... but in my desire to become closer to the Lord, I am drawn to the book of Proverbs. I think that next year when I do my BREAD, I am going to read 2-3 VERSES of Proverbs a day, and seriously ponder them, figuring out how they can apply to my life. I counted 915 verses total in the book of Proverbs... divide it up by 365 and you get 2.5 verses a day. SO... some days 2 verses, some days 3 verses. That is my plan. PERHAPS it will even take the place of the BREAD program for one year, so my study and reflection can be all the deeper. We shall see. Time for bed! Peace!