A Few Pics from the Camp, Branson, GA adventure

Adoption is unbreakable

Was reading today in Ezekiel 16 which is a powerful allegory of how God adopted Israel. Before Yahweh, Israel was just like a 'left for dead' baby out in the cold...forgotten and rejected. God came by and saw her, squirming and crying, and He felt compassion for her. He picked her up, embraced her and cleansed her from her filth and dirt. He wrapped her up and claimed her as His own. He raised her, clothed her, cared for her, protected her, taught her, invested in her, worked tirelessly on her behalf as she slept in peace. Yet, she rebelled. The very gifts God blessed her with she used to pursue idolatry and unfaithfulness. God kept pursuing and Israel kept rebelling. Finally, like a parent making a tough love decision when faced with a rebellious young adult, He had to kick her out of the house and she moved to Babylon. Yet, His covenant, His adoption was unfailingly secure. He still loved her and thought of her each and every day while she was away in another land. He still had a plan for wondrous redemption ultimately through His very own Son where the most horrific, perplexing, and wonderful act of love displayed on a Roman cross was performed. Definitely check this chapter out. It gives you a whole new appreciation for all that is ours in Christ!

Snow! Yes, we Houstonians went ape as we encountered snow on our way out to Georgia. We heard rumors that this mysterious, captivating, white flaky substance existed but it is a rare sight indeed when you live where we do. When we hit I-20 around Birmingham we found an awesome little patch so we had to jump out and experience it. Emily went straight to pouncing around and making snowballs to fling at Daddy. Josh was quite exctatic as well. Emily lost all control at one point and flung her little body down into the snow and made her first snow angel and of course Joshua followed suit. This concluded our short snow detour as Emily quickly realized that snow, snow angels and no gloves = cold and the detour concluded with tears and whimpering. But she soon enough warmed back up in the car as we continued on our journey.

On Wednesday morning we had even more unexpected fun in the snow as we got to go 'sleighing' (as Joshua put it) in Whitney's sister's backyard. Emily of course continued to pummel me with snowballs as well (one in the neck, head and back) and she also opened up her own snowball stand where small snowballs were free and large ones were $1 (she is definitely a born entrepreneur).

Emily had her first major project for school last Friday. Her project was on Jonathan Edwards and she had to put together a little book (that she hand wrote) and she made her first display board as well.

Joshua in his Indian costume as the kids dressed like Pilgrims and Indians in celebration of Thanksgiving.

Emily, also had her Thanksgiving celebration today. They were also dressed for the occasion!

Here's a few pics from the last several weeks. Grammy and Poppaw visited with us as well as Gay and Brian. Emily had a blast particpating in the 'Little Warrior' cheerleader program where she got to learn a few cheers and then cheer along with the varsity cheer leaders at one of the home games. Josh enjoyed getting to particpate in his story book parade at his school as a cowboy too. Emily also experienced a huge milestone as she lost her first tooth as you can see in the picture down below. Lastly, the kids had a big time trick or treating in our neighborhood as they dressed up as leopard girl and a rock star.

A few recent pics from Wimberley from a few weeks ago...

His Terms, His Timetable

As I was spending time with God this morning I was wrestling with the following thought: we follow God on His terms and on His timetable and not ours. It's His yoke and not ours that He allows us to take upon ourselves. We are invited to submit to His plan and His way. So many times when we look at our lives it is filled with a frenzy of 'Christian' activity but the end result is that we are completely frazzled and weary and have little or no true fruit to show for it. Our job is to sit and hear God's voice and to simply say 'Yes, Lord' and follow Him. He has His plan and His will and He is working all over the world right now and He breaks into our world and invites us to join Him. It will involve altering my plans and my dreams and my to do list if I want to be a part of what He is doing.

If your boss comes in on a Monday afternoon and says, 'I need you to do this for me.' You dont' say 'Hey, I'd love to but I already have my afternoon planned out, sorry.' No, if you want to keep your job you say, 'yes, sir I'll get right on that.' His request trumps whatever plans you had made because he's the boss and you're not. It should be the same way with God. In Numbers 13-14 Israel rebelled against God at Kadesh-Barnea and refused to believe that God would hand over the Canaanites to them and give them the promised land. So God judged them for 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Right after the judgment was given they decided they had changed their minds and went up against the Canaanites anyway. Well, they were of course completely defeated because they went in their own strength and God was not with them. They had missed their window of opportunity to obey God. God speaks and we have a window of time to follow Him that will pass us by. Everyday we need to be ready like Isaiah with a 'Here am I Lord, send me' attitude to follow Him on His terms and on His timetable not ours.