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