Merry Christmas!

"Tis the season to be jolly
Fal-la-la-la-la-la"

We're getting ready to leave to Mummu's, for Christmas.
It's so exciting. All the little secrets behind locked doors. Wraping and bows everywhere (I mean EVERYWHERE)!!
Trying to get it all packed into our van, which doesn't have much trunk space, just seats, which are practically all taken :)
And last minute cleaning...what a way to spoil it :) JK

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas...and I can't wait to hear what you did!!!

P.S. Like my little, new, pink tree? I know, I'm weired...but it's so cute, just needs a few more ornaments :)

To Atone The Lost

With Christmas in a week, I’m sure you’re busy with last minute things- shopping, wrapping, baking and travel preparations. All these things draw us from our daily goings, we seem to be caught up in the rush with everyone else, and we forget what it’s all about-the birth of Christ-the Incarnation. We need to take time to remember the reason for the season- Christ’s birth. I wish to express the joy and meaning of the Incarnation in these three points- 1. The Story of the Incarnation. 2. Why the need for it. 3. The significance of it.

The gospel of Luke tells us of a young betrothed virgin named Mary, who becomes God chosen one to bear His only Son (“And the angel said to her, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”” Luke 1:31) She was conceived of the Holy Spirit (“And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God.” Luke 1:35). When Joseph, her betrothed, saw that she was with child, and did not know of the angels visit, he had doubts. Just when he was going to divorce her, an angel visited him and told that she was conceived of the Holy Spirit. He believed, and they were wed.

Unfortunately Caesar sent out a decree forcing Joseph to journey to Bethlehem. Upon their arrival they find out that the town is full, and must reside in a stable. This is where Christ was born. You know the rest of the story-the Sheppard’s, wise men and so on… Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary in the little town of Bethlehem. This is the Incarnation.

But why did all this have to happen? Why did God humble Himself to the likeness of man and live among us? For the answer we must go back to the beginning of time. God created all things good and Adam and Eve lived happily in the Garden of Eden, without sin or death. When they were placed in it, they were forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, if committed they would surly die along with everything else (“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Gen.2:16). Foolishly they disobeyed. Sin entered. Death entered. All mankind is now a sinful dying creature.

Being all good and just, God is a natural hater of sin. He is wrathful towards us and demands atonement for all that we have done. God set up a system of sacrifices, but those were not good enough. They were only foreshadows of the true, perfect sacrifice – Jesus Christ. We needed a perfect man to atone for us. Yet because of Adam man is tainted by sin, so He cannot be perfect. Only by God taking the form of man, could there be a perfect man, a perfect sacrifice. This is why Christ had to become a man. This is the reason for the Incarnation.

Why is all this significant? What is most important about it? What can we take from it?
Heb. 2:17-18 “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” Christ had to become a man in order to make atonement for the lost sheep, as we talked about. His full humanity is the basis on which it is possible for Him to represent us, indeed take our place in dying for us. Being conceived of the Holy Sprit, born of Mary, Jesus is both truly man and truly God. By this He was the perfect sacrifice for yours and my sins.

This verse also points to the fact that He was tempted like us. Why? So that He can help us get through our temptations. So that He knows how we are, how to sympathies with us. So that He could take on even more the flesh of man. When we fully understand the significance behind the Incarnation, we appreciate more and more what Christ did. Not only did He become a man. Leave His glory at the right hand of God, and humble Himself to our likeness. But He did all for us—to die for us. A spotless innocent lamb, dying for us—dirty, rebellious beings. This is the significance of the Incarnation.

In conclusion, I have told the story of the Incarnation, the reason it had to be done and lastly the significance of it all. Just remember that in the Incarnation, the Son of God took upon Himself human nature and flesh in order to accomplish the redemption of Adam’s fallen seed. This is what the season is about…and we can’t forget it!

Gingerbread Houses

A couple of weeks ago we went to a gingerbread houses showing with some relatives. It was so wonderful to see all the detail in every house...you'd have to stay at one house for an hour in order to see everything in and on it. I loved it all, because I love that kind of stuff!!

Here are a couple of my favorites-

This one was my favorite

Breanna, Esther, and Savannah

This was a big theater (see if you can find The Phantom of the Opera)

The Three Little Pigs

Front

Back

Extreme Pete - The amazing DOG

GoFish - It's Called Christmas

Birthday's

These are my "Happy Birthdays" to Destiny, Anna, and Mercy!

Thanksgiving Week

Sunday- Church. Dad gave an awesome sermon on thanksgiving. See later post

Monday- I went to guitar lessons, then me and mom went to the grocery store and got food for the feast! After that I got together with some cousins to practice fro the talent show.

Tuesday- All us girls took Aunt Heather and her girls (and Destiny) to go to the gingerbread houses showing. It was awesome...I'll post on it later. Then we did some more grocery shopping :)
Then off to speech club!

Wednesday- Me, mom, Karissa, Aunt Tami, Jodi and Heather all went out to eat for the birthday girl- Destiny! It was a very delightful meal, we went to the Jacksonville Inn. After that we walked around Jacksonville, looked at all the cute shops. Then mom dropped me, Karissa and Destiny off at Ross and she did more grocery shopping. While there we tried on about 20 different outfits and all I bought was a jacket and sweatshirt. Karissa and Destiny picked out these cute dresses, which they wore at Thanksgiving.

We went home and started the baking. Karissa and Destiny did other stuff and I made Pumpkin Rolls until 11pm! It was a very LONG day...but fun altogether :)

Thursday- Thanksgiving Day! Mom was up at 5 and went to the building to put in her turkey. I made a Pecan Pie then did a post, then got the kids dressed and bathed. Then we were off to the Rogue River Grange (because we had to house to fit us all in). We ate around 3 then started the Talent Show around 5. Which lasted for about two hours and we had dessert then cleaned up. At home, Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Troy and Dad all had a glass of wine and a good talk. Me and David worked on our duo while Kaleb and Kolten finished their Xbox game. I went to bed around 11 while everyone was still here. So that is a short summary of Thanksgiving Day.

Friday- Went shopping at 11am got home around 7pm.

Saturday- Hung out at home.


*note- not all the Talent show was videoed, so you only get a small taste of what you missed out on :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

May this day be filled with thanks to God for His many blessings, good eating, and fun family fellowship! I'm hoping to see posts on what everyone did.

First Proclamation After Plymouth

Governor Bradford of Massachusetts made this first Thanksgiving Proclamation three years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth:

“Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.
Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”

—William Bradford
Ye Governor of Ye Colony

What do You Give a God Who has Everything? –Kenny Anderson

These are my notes from Dad’s sermon yesterday. He did his sermon by going through Ps.116 and expounding on each verse (you can read the whole passage by clicking on any one of the references below and above). But Verse 12 was his main one. It’s in honor of thanksgiving which is right around the corner!

Ps. 116:12-“What shall I render to the Lord, for all his benefits to me?” What can we give God for all that He has given us? What can we give someone who has everything, who gives all? God gives us everything, what can we give Him that is already not His? Are we grateful for all His benefits?

Let us name a few-

• God- the Trinity. We are given the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• Covenant- we are blessed to be in a formal relationship with God.
• Life- He sustains and gives every breath we take.
• Day- The opportunity to live another day.
• Family- We normally don’t pick our families. God gives us to them, and if it turns out bad, He may give us another chance. “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” Prov. 18:22. “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” Ps. 127:3. Family is indeed one of the greatest blessings ever given. Limbs- What would we do without our elbows or thumbs?·
• Nature- The beauty of creation. God could have made everything grey, but instead He made variety, color and beauty.
• Our Five Senses- The ability to taste, smell, see, hear and touch are a great blessing.
• Animals- pets and animals to eat…though I prefer pets.
• Thought- To be able to process thought, do philosophy and so on, are a great aspect that God has blessed us with.

All these and things and many more, as matter of fact everything is from God! Everything in this world is of God. How can we repay Him? We are only stewards of His stuff. Everything we own is His and is given to us as a blessing, we own nothing that is not His already.

Look at the next verse in the Psalms- “I will lift up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.” Ps. 116:13.
We can only take His cup of salvation and be thankful for it. Praise Him for saving us. Salvation is a free gift from God, we did nothing to deserve and can do nothing to earn it. We can only accept it as thanks to all the blessings from God.

Christ needs nothing nor will take anything from us. But we need Him and His cup of salvation. Christ took the cup of wrath and has given us the cup of righteousness. He took the cup we deserved and gave us we we don't deserve.
So take it, lift it up, and honor Him.

Ps.116 is all about being grateful for the grace of God.
Be grateful for the grace of God.

What blessings have you received from the grace of God? Please…tell me :)

I Thank Thee -A poem

O Thou whose bounty fills my cup,
With every blessing meet!
I give Thee thanks for every drop—
The bitter and the sweet.
I praise Thee for the desert road,
And for the riverside;
For all Thy goodness hath bestowed,
And all Thy grace denied.
I thank Thee for both smile and frown,
And for the gain and loss;
I praise Thee for the future crown And for the present cross.
I thank Thee for both wings of love Which stirred my worldly nest;
And for the stormy clouds which drove Me, trembling, to Thy breast.
I bless Thee for the glad increase,
And for the waning joy;
And for this strange, this settled peace
Which nothing can destroy.

—Christian Victory

I put this on since thanksgiving is coming up.
May it be a season that we be thankful for all the blessings God has bestowed on us out of His rich grace!

Grandma's and Kaylee's Birthday

She really wanted that doll!

Yes! she got it :)

Tami wrote a song, in place of a card. It was a very beautiful song and Tami has and extraordinary voice.

Lined up to read our cards

Last night we celebrated Grandma's 60th birthday and Kaylee's 1st birthday.

Here's how it went, in my view-

First, after 3 hours of Omnibus school, we got everything set up and decorated. Around 6 people started to arrive, though the birthday girl was 2nd to first, and everyone else a tad bit late. Then everyone just sorta mingled while the mom's got dinner ready, and we Omnibus kids (plus Kaleb) all practiced a little something we're doing for Thanksgiving.

Finally it was time for the presents. Kaylee went first, and boy did she get some adorable clothes. Kaylee is the cutest thing, she reminds me of a doll, such a perfect face.
Then Grandma opened all her presents. First each of her kids read their card to her, and she cried through it all (a happy, loving cry).

After that we did a play I wrote up, for Grandma. It's called "A Saturday with Grandma". You see, she loves to go to yard sales (a lot) so that was the theme of the play :) It was really quite fun and funny (thanks to Dad. He gave me all theses funny idea's).
Then all the grandkids lined up and read their cards to her. She is words of encouragement, so you can guess that through it all the tears where flowing (it shows how much she loves us).

Then we all lined up and got our food, sang birthday songs and enjoyed some homemade ice cream, complements of Uncle Steve, with some lemon muffins, compliments of Mom.
Finally us Omnibus kids (plus Kaleb) closed the day with a worship song.

God has sure blessed me with a wonderful Grandma and a beautiful cousin!

Hello!

Hello everyone!
I have been so busy with school and all, that I have not been that active in the blog world. 'Tis crazy, I know.
These are some pics that I took the other day. Esther and Katrina were matching, so I couldn't pass up the moment. Karissa made the dresses they are wearing. I had Ellie get in because she is never there when I take pics :)
What do you think?









p.s. Aaron and Des told me to post so this is all I have to offer :)

Civil War Day

Yesterday we went to an event focusing on the Civil War. It was mainly geared towards homeschoolers, and around 3oo kids showed up! We knew quite a bit of people, so it was nice to spend time with friends. What they did was that they separated us into 12 groups and they had us rotate to 12 different stations which focused on different things in that time era. It was all at an old house outside of Eagle Point, so we got to learn about that house, the guns, fashions, life as a soldier and surgeon in the war, and certain people during that time, like Clara Barton. They fired off a real canon, but it wasn't loaded, though it was still very LOUD! I love that time era, so I learned a lot and really enjoyed. Above is a sideshow of pics from it. I couldn't find any other music, so it doesn't really fit.

Today mom and all the kids left to visit Mummu (mom's mom) and I stayed behind because of school and stuff. It sure is going to be weird without them at the house.
Well I got to go and catch up on yard work.
Have a nice weekend!

It's Fall!

Street Witnessing

“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, ^25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, ^26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

-2 Tim. 2:24-26

The first couple of times I went street-witnessing, I thought it was I who would lead them to God. I was all ready to go out and debate someone, ready to tear them down and show how stupid they were in what they believed, and to prove to everyone that I was smart. One of my main reasons I wanted to go out and talk to people was to just get into a big argument and win. I had almost completely lost the vision of love and was taken over with pride. But then as I was reading my Bible one day I came upon this verse and it so totally spoke to me.

1. “A servant of the Lord (that’s what I want to be) must not quarrel (there goes my debating theory), but be gentle to all (I have to be nice to these people?) able to teach, patient (I have to really work on that) in humility correcting those in opposition (I have gone about this all wrong!).”
These were my thoughts as I read the first half. God showed me that I was all wrong, isn’t He awesome. Instead of letting me totally flunk, He gives me a good spanking and tells me I was wrong, He humbles me and then He leads me to the truth.

2. God then continues to go on by saying why we do this-“If God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken by him to do his will.”

In Adam we sinned all. We are enslaved to sin and cannot escape it. I, being regenerated and given a new heart, a new soul, wish to share with all those lost souls out there my good news and have the same for them. But the reason we witness is in the hope that they may be the elect. Meaning God uses us to tell the others about Him in the hopes that He may open their eyes. We aren’t the ones who will save them and open their eyes. We can’t fully show them how lost they are. Only God can. It is He who opens their eyes, through us. He uses us, but it’s not us who saves them. I wasn’t going to bring them to Christ, I wasn’t going to tear down their worldview, God would. He uses me to confound the things of this world. I have the privilege to be His servant.

We, who are regenerated and saved from the snares of sin, can, be used by God to share the gospel. The death of Christ is the greatest gift, the grace and love of God is the reason we are alive. This is the reason we street-witness. Not to win a debate or to boast of how many we have lead to Christ. Rather we tell people of the mercy we have received by God through His Son, in hopes that God will open their eyes and raise them from their state of deadness. It’s not about us and never will be, but rather everything is for the glory of God, everything is Sola Deo Gloria. We teach in humility, patience and love, because of the love that has been given to us through the cross.
"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen." Rom 11:36

Just thought I’d share this :)

Ugachaka baby

I know this is old...but I love it :)

Concert!!!!!!!

Last night, me, Karissa, Destiny, Aunt Tami and Jodi, and Uncle Hugh all went to a casting Crowns Concert. It was so awesome, they also had Leeland and Mark Willard (other bands) there. The music was so good and very impacting. They said some really good stuff about Christianity, their theology seemed good. I was impressed.

After it was all over we hanged around for another half hour and the band came out, almost everyone was gone by now, so we got our pictures with them. After all that Uncle Hugh took us to Sheri's and us girls got breakfast (yummy and it was mid-night by now).
We got home and told dad all about it. He was the one who payed for everyone to go and didn't go himself. I was so disappointed when I heard we wasn't going to be taking us, it seemed half the fun was taken out. Isn't he awesome to pay for everyone and not even go himself, I sure am blessed to have a father like him.

This was the drummer...and he was a crazy guy!!

All of us with the guitar guys (Hector on the left and the other guy (can't remember the name) on the right)

opening song

They also had this guy who drew on a black canvas. My dad had shown me a video of him doing it, and it was so cool he was here too.

It was a wonderful time...wish you could have come :)

Beach Day

Lacey and me

All the girls

The Whole Crew

Yesterday Grandma Dot took me, Karissa, Kolten and some of the Goldmans to the beach. Our friends the Sleadds had organized a whole day and I really wanted to go, but didn't think I could, so imagine my excitement when I found out that day that I could. We were a little late, but still had plenty of time to have fun. We met everyone at the beach and split up to go see our friends. I hung out with most of the girls and we played frisbee, walked and talked. Afterwards everyone went to a park to sing and pray, but before that Grandma had to go to Freddies (Fred Myers) to buy clothes for the ones who got soaking wet. At the park we played more frisbee, ate chips, sang parise songs, thanked God for the wonderful day, then we all went our separate ways.

It was such an awesome time. We expected it to be freezing, but God blessed us with wonderful weather.

Thank you Sleadds for organizing it and talking the Kruses into going (which provided the opportunity for me to go). Thank you Grandma for driving us there and for all the meals and treats. Thank you Dad and Mom for letting me go. And thanks for reading all this.
See ya!

Check it out!

Me, Karissa, David, Alex and Destiny (it was her idea) have all decided to start a blog about our Omnibus class.
Click below to enter the world-

The Omnibus Blog

Check it out :)

Long Time No See :)

WOW! I sure haven't posted in a long time. I guess it's because I've been so busy (I understand now why Nathan never posts :), but I've loved it. We finished the Chosen by God book, and my life will never be the same. We have also finished the whole book of Exodus, and the theme with this book is was about how Israel was freed from slavery to sabbath, freedom from a cruel king to serve another. We applied this in our day by saying-"freed from slavery to sin to a servant for Christ." We also talked about whether we should apply the death penalty of the O.T. to our day in age. I think so, but what do you think?We took these pics on day after class when dads battery went dead and then when he tried to jump it with Tami's car, her car went dead.

I also got my permit after a year of waiting, hoping, dreaming and waiting :) but now it's so sweet. I barely passed the test, I think I went through it to fast, but I still passed.

That's what has been going on...well I didn't post it all, it will all come in future post.
See ya!

School Time!

Many of you probably already know about the Omnibus course that I and my cousins are going through, but let me give you my opinion on it- It’s so totally AWESOME. No other course compares to it. I know I’m going to get so much out of it, because they teach on so much and because I have a teacher who really knows how to explain certain things and who is just plain old smart-my dad.

This week we went through the whole book of Genesis and studied on covenant, which is quite a coincidence because that is what dad has been teaching in his sermons. Yesterday we all came up with our own definition of what a covenant is…want to hear it? Good because here it is- “A covenant is a sacred and formal relationship between two or more people with clearly defined expectations and consequences.”
Today people replace the covenantal aspect of God with individual relationships, but all throughout the Bible God makes covenants. It’s so awesome!

I have gotten so much more out of Genesis than I use to. God put so much depth into the first 3 chapters of the whole Bible, it’s amazing. We had some really good talks on how long are the creation days (7^th day creationist vs. Theistic evolutionist), the flood, and where did all the races come from. They have been some very enlightening conversations.

During all that we also have to be reading a book called “Chosen by God” by R.C. Sproul. This book has been even more enlightening than you can image in.

Chp.1- Defining predestination (the topic of the book). Predestination has something to do with the relationship of our ultimate destiny, and that something is done about our destiny before we are even born. Other words- our destiny-the kingdom or eternal destruction-is decided by God, not only before we even get there, but before we were ever born. Pretty good...aye?
He then went into how all churches hold to some form of predestination, but the key question that they all argue on is this: On what basis does God make that decision? Do our individual lives have any bearing on that decision? How we answer these will determine if our view is reformed or not.

Chp.2-This was the best chapter, and I was able to get two apologetics cards out of it-sweet! First he talked about the sovereignty of God. God is the supreme authority over all authorities; all other authorities exist either by God’s command or by God’s permission.
If there is any part of creation outside of His sovereignty, then He is not sovereign and if He’s not sovereign, then God is not God. If we reject divine sovereignty then we must hold to atheism (at this part I couldn’t put the book down). We must hold to divine sovereignty, yet do it in such a way as not to violate human freedom. Human freedom and evil are under God’s sovereignty, He does not violate them.
At this point he went into the sovereignty of God and the problem of evil. Answering the question how could God create evil (Cat. 1 G.Q.- 3, for all you speech people J) But this post is already getting to long and you’re probably about to go back to whatever you were doing. So I’ll just say this- We know that God is sovereign, because God is God. Therefore we must conclude that God foreordained sin and that it was a good decision. What else is there to conclude?

Now I’m not saying that evil is good. God’s allowing evil is good, but the evil he allows is still evil. Hope that sums it up for you.

Again I need to draw to a close but I can’t, there is so much I want to say. By now the question is raised-“How can I have free-will when God is all sovereign and has already predestined my fate?” They do seem contradicting; many people try to come up with analogies to explain it. One is they are like parallel lines that come together in eternity. Of course if parallel lines ever came together they wouldn’t be parallel.

We cannot affirm that they are contradicting or else we would be saying that the Holy Spirit is an author of confusion-which is impossible.
Here is the answer-it is not freedom that is cancelled out by God’s sovereignty, it is autonomy that cannot exist with supreme sovereignty. We are free but there is a limit to our freedom and the limit is God’s sovereignty.

Ok this is the end now, I won’t write any more on this book, until the next post, even though I am sorely tempted too.

If you have made it this far you are remarkable.

But before you leave please tell me what you think about God being covenantal, and about the doctrine of predestination?

Me and Natalie at Speech club

Happy Birthday!!!

Yesterday was Katrina's Birthday, but I couldn't get the video to work until now, and it still has a problem :)

What is Self-Government and What is its Foundation?

What is Self-Government?

Websters 1828 dictionary defines Self-Control as "restraint exercised over one's own impulses, emotions, or desires..."

Let's look at Reuben and Joseph, two of Israel’s sons, as an example. Joseph was sold into slavery, as a slave he had many temptations in the house of a rich man. But one temptation in particular he fled, he had self-control and did not give in to the temptation. He suffered many cruelties for what he did but God was with him all through it. Later on in Gen.41:38 "Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” ^39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you.”

Joseph was discerning and wise, he had self-control. He was stable and fled temptations. Whereas Reuben was called “unstable as water” (gen.49:4a). Joseph excelled greatly and Reuben did not, one had self-control and stableness and the other didn’t.

Self-government is something that one possess and when possessed they are able to flee temptations, control their anger be stable etc..

What is the Foundation of Self-Government?

Back in Genesis where Pharaoh is praising Joseph he says “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God” The spirit of God dwelled in Joseph and it is because of that that Joseph was great.

The Fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5) is a great virtue and a self-governed person would possess these.
Notice thought they are called the fruits of the Spirit. Only when the Holy Spirit is working through us can we produce theses fruits.

As human beings, descendents of Adam we are born in sin (Rom.5:12), our hearts are wicked (Jer.17:9), we are born sinful (Ps.51:5). Being such we do not desire to do good, and are not good (Ecc.7:20, Rom.3:12, Matt.19:17). Therefore we cannot have self-government without Christ or the Holy Spirit working through us, doing those good works through us.

As is said in Matt.15:4-5 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. ^5“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

To bear the Fruits of the Spirit the Holy Spirit must dwell in us and this is the foundation of self-control.

Pastors who have had a huge influence in my life-

Since I got an ipod 2 years ago I have really been wanting to listen to more sermons but never got into them until this year. I would like to share with you some of the men who I love to listen to.

1. Kenny Anderson- not only is he the best dad ever, but he is wonderful in the pulpit.
Church to me now is not just about seeing all my family and stuff, but rather I look forward to hear what dad has to deliver, and it is always very impacting and useful.

2. Greg Bahnsen- I don't know if he was a regular pastor but his talks on apologetics are wonderful. If you haven't listened too " Weapons of Our Warfare" or "Destroying All Speculations" by him, you better. He was a great debater, you can listen to his all time debate by clicking here. You better listen to it.

3. Gary DeMar- He followed Bahnsen in many ways. He has a podcast/radio show now and I love to listen to it. Me and dad just went to a Worldview Super Conference hosted by his organization called American Vision. If you have listed and heard of Bahnsen then you'll like him.

4. Douglas Phillips- Many home schoolers know this name, he is huge in that circle. His talks are very interesting. My favorite cds that he has put out are called "Daughters of Victory" and "The Sleeping Beauty". They have had a huge impacting on my life and what I want to do with my life. Every girl MUST listen to those talks.

5. Paul Washer- We just started listening to him and it has been a HUGE influence in all my family's lives. Click here to listen to some of his stuff. I highly recommended you look him up and listen to some of his stuff. You have too, I can't even begin to describe how good he is. But don't listen to him if you don't want to change your life for the better.

6. John Piper- Our family has started to watch some of his sermons at night and believe me, we don't regret it. If you haven't heard of him then you have really missed out.
Click here for videos etc...

7. Bill Jack- He is very good for teens. He goes around the states and speaks at camps called Worldview Academy Leadership Camps. They are very good and I hope to be able to attend one in the future. He is very funny and smart which makes him an excellent speaker. If your a teen you should definitely look him up.

8. Voddie Bauchman- I first heard him at the conference I went to in NC. He believes many of the things that I believe and rarely find in many of the pastors today. Click here to watch some clips, but they're not as good as when he's in the pulpit. My favorite saying of his is "We are raising men who have the biological capability to have children." Very impacting for one sentence.

9. Way of the Master podcast- They were the first who really got me going. I listened to them to learn how to street witness. Even though now that I find many things wrong with their theology, I still recommend them if you want to learn a great way to share the gospel.

These men are only a handful of all the great pastors out there.
Who do you like to listen too? Have you heard of these men before, and what is you opinion of them...please I really want to know :)

Anderson Family -The Younger Years

Here is a video dad did a long time ago.
We had taken a lot of pics then dad made this little thing.
Also I did a video of our recent years and posted it...click here to watch it :)

More pics!!