IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS. . .

There was a time when
marriage was out of a
necessity to survive.

There was a time when
if a spouse died, the other, would
remarry within days or weeks.

There was time when
men depended on their wives
for their inner strength.

There was a time when
women depended on their husbands
for their outer strength.

There was a time when
the two really became one,
greater than the individuals.

There was a time when
children were a blessing
and a heritage from God.

There was a time when
a child was welcomed
despite the extreme hardships.

There was a time when
the children were expected
to pitch in and contribute.

There was a time when
hard work ruled the day,
not mindless entertainment and fun.

There was a time when
great risks were taken
to secure a better future.

There was a time when
people trusted God for
all of their daily provisions.

There was a time when
families raised children
to depend on and trust in God.

There was a time when
people understood they were
just passing through this life.

There was a time when
the cycle of life was
accepted and not feared.

There was a time when it wasn't always like this!

Menasha woman calls for help for Saharawi people facing violence in Sahara | postcrescent.com | Appleton Post Crescent

Menasha woman calls for help for Saharawi people facing violence in Sahara | postcrescent.com | Appleton Post Crescent

The Menasha woman referred to in this local article is the wife of our Pastor. She is currently in the Western Sahara refugee camps located in Algeria along with a team from our church. They are being the hands and feet of Jesus to a Muslim people oppressed for years and forgotten by the world. She has spoken on behalf of this people group to the United Nations on several occasions.

http://ctrblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/urgent-news-from-western-sahara/ (cut and paste in your browser to read her urgent plea to us back home.)

www.betheirvoice.org tells their story.

What if something like this was going on in your town? Who would stand up for you? Who would be your voice or the voice of your child? Who would help you? Who would be willing to step in and intervene on your behalf?

God sees the evil that is being thrust upon these people. He loves this people group and he wants us to love them, too! Can we have compassion for their situation and see them through God's eyes and be moved to be an advocate for them.

Please pray for them. Please pray for our church leaders. Pray they have wisdom, courage, love, and comfort for these people. Pray that God comes down from heaven to avenge them and to rescue them so that they may know for sure who is the living God of the universe and so that they may worship and praise him all the days of their lives.

The gospel message is being shared in their circumstances and a miracle on their behalf may solidify a belief in the one true God. A entire people group may come to know Jesus as their personal Savior because he heard their cry and came to them in their time of need. Pray that this is so. Pray that justice is served and God is praised!

Please take the time to read the article from our local newspaper. If anyone who reads this has ties to important people that may be able to help get the word out about what is happening in Western Sahara this week, please forward to them.

Wind Storm!

Wisconsin was hit with a wind storm yesterday which continues today. Sustained winds of 30-40 miles per hour with gusts as high as 60 miles per hour.

Yesterday, my husband and I were both gone in the morning and arrived home for lunch at the same time, only to find our front yard tree spilt completely in half, all the way down to the ground, and one half of the tree laying on top of our house and the neighbors fence.

We were not the only ones affected with downed trees. Many more had worse damage then we did.

The tough thing is because so many were in need at once, supply and demand pricing kicked in, so to have the tree removed and completely cleaned up cost - $1100.00!

My husband was so busy at work and couldn't get away but all day he wished he could just take off of work, buy a chain saw, and clean the mess up himself. But, it is what it is.

My daughters are distraught over losing the tree and by the fact we have to wait until spring to plant a new one. However, they did enjoy watching the men work at taking it down. I'm not sure the men enjoyed the audience but it was exciting stuff in our household yesterday.

The wind reminded me of a book my daughters and I just read about the snow storm that hit the northeast in 1888. I'd recommend it to anyone because it's a good story and it's well written. It's called Blizzard! by Jim Murphy.

The next book we will read together is about the same storm system but how it affected the newly settled homestead in the prairies of the Dakota's. It's called The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. I can't wait.

Don't blow away today. Stay home and read a book!

Great Love

Psalm 86:13 For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave



Psalm 86 starts out with these words. . .

Hear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.

This is our condition in life - poor and needy.

Not poor in a financial sense, although there are those that are.

Not needy in a material sense, although there are those that are.

But, poor and needy, in an universal spiritual condition affecting the entire human race.

When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, we all became poor and needy souls, in desperate need of rescue from our depraved state.

That depraved state brought down the death sentence for all of us by God's perfect judgment.

Thank God for a loving God, big enough to save us from the death sentence.

Thank God for His One and Only Son who obediently came down to this earth and took on all the sins, of all of humanity, on his shoulders in payment for us.

He redeemed us! He bought us back from Satan! He delivered us from the grave!

For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave!

A LOVE like that requires a response from us.

Zealousness for his Word, for a relationship with Him, for doing his Work.

Valley Rescue

I FINALLY HAVE MY LIFE TOGETHER!

Sadly, at times, these words could not be further from the truth for me.

Do you know I like an ordered house? I like an ordered family. I like the outside world to see me in control. But the reality is, at times, it is all a cover for the turmoil that goes on in my heart. Some may look at my life and see no worry. I have a great husband, five daughters, two and 1/2 grandchildren (one on the way), and a comfortable home. What more could a woman want?

But, I am a woman in want, sometimes.

I am a grown woman but in many ways I am still a wounded child deeply affected by people who said they loved me but their actions or their presence (or lack of it) spoke otherwise. I am still a little girl who never felt perfect enough for anyone to love me like other people were loved. I have always been a comparer and I always calculate myself as coming up short.

So, I've spent my life being a people pleaser, morphing into who I thought others wanted me to be, in the hopes of being loved and having someone stick around. As a result, I am not always authentic. I have always been the caretaker of others but the one easily discarded or ignored. I can't make decisions for fear of making the wrong one and making someone else unhappy. Unhappy people = abandonment in my mind.

My life turned a huge corner when I met my husband. No one in this world has ever loved me the way he loves me. In fact, it was his example of unconditional love, that actually allowed me to let the Christ I had always known, come into my heart. Up until that time, my spiritual life mirrored my personal life. If I am unlovable by the people closest to me, then, I am unlovable by my Creator, as well. I knew God to be a gracious and loving God for everyone else in the world but not for me.

For eight years, or so, God has been recreating me. He's helped me clean up my life. He showed me all my self destructive ways. It's amazing what one will allow when they have no self worth. He's given me new purpose and direction.

I quit my job to be a stay at home mom four years ago. I still get calls from my former employer to come back to work but I don't need to be successful in the marketplace to define my worth anymore.

I obediently followed when God said to homeschool. He gave me the backbone and the strength to stand up to the opposing voices that quickly came our way when we decided to pursue his will. Pretty amazing for a people pleaser! But, it's Him whom I want to please these days, not others.

He's given me a desire to be a teacher of his word to other women and he faithfully has brought many wonderful women into my life to mentor.

We have made great progress, He and I.

Any, yet, despite all this progress, I spent this week going deeper and deeper into a dark place. Imagine two mountains with a valley in the middle. I was on top of one of those mountains on Monday, but by Friday night, I was wandering around in the valley wondering how I would ever get out.

I felt myself begin to slip on Tuesday and instead of looking up for help, I allowed myself to look down, knowing full well where this would lead. I let doubt lead to inadequacy, and inadequacy lead to unlovable, and unlovable lead to my abandonment history, and my self worth just plummetted.

"God can't use me. In fact, God doesn't even love me. I'm fooling myself in thinking he ever did. I'm living in a pipe dream if I think God ever cared for me. Look at you, no one has ever loved you. You don't matter to anyone, never did. God created me just to be miserable."

These are the lies my mind tells me when I allow myself to slip off the mountain; when I go to the dark place outside of God's truthful light. I get lost in the valley of the shadows of death. My poor husband has to deal with my crying and self pity, my short temper, and my withdrawal to safety - alone. I go underground and I am of no help to anyone.

But, then, God sends the Great Shepherd to come and rescue me. He picks me up and gently reminds me that he loves me. He cradles me in his loving arms as he treks me back up the mountain, back into the full light of God's truth. He reminds me he has always loved me and has always been there for me. He reminds me of who I am in him and the plans he has for me. By Sunday morning, we are almost to the top again. I wake up thankful for all he has blessed me with in the later half of my life, ready to let it all go and move on.

During church this morning, I lay it all down at his feet. The years of hurt, the years of being alone, the years of measuring short, the years wasted. I ask forgiveness for not trusting, for not believing. I ask for help in staying on the mountaintop. I ask for the freedom to fly and soar, to have the weight removed from me so I am weightless and free to do his will without restriction and fear.

Then, He gives me this vision:

1. Stop trying to figure out why your life was what it was. Accept it as it is.

2. Stop trying to test everyone's love for you as authentic. Accept it as it is.

3. Stop trying to move up in the world and instead look down. Look at the world and see all the people in the world that feel the same way you do - unlovable/not worthy/abandoned. Use what you know about me to reach them with my love and hope.

4. Instead of trying to gain worldly love and acceptance, be filled up with the love I give, and let MY love pour out of you into others. Take the focus off yourself and focus instead on loving others in the way I have loved you.

5. Use ALL I have given you (even the bad) to my glory!

My battle with self worth is not over. Satan will wage that war against me my whole life but God has given me a battle plan to win the war. Extend past myself, take the weapons of war he provides, focus on winning the battle, trust in Him. He will keep me safe and bring me victoriously to the end.

And if on the day when he returns, I am standing there before him with many more who once thought themselves unworthy but stand there that day because of Christ love shown through me to them, I will have run the race well.

Sons in the Kingdom

A man owned a business that was doing quite well. This man had three sons. He wanted them all to be a part of his business.

The first son had his own dreams. He wanted to pursue other things and wanted nothing to do with his Father's business. He went off on his own to build up his own work and name.

The second son wanted the benefits of his father's business. The status, the pay, the bonuses, the security. However, he had no real ambition to work hard. He just wanted to put his time in each day doing the bare minimum required of him. He was okay with the business outlook remaining just as it was and had no ambition to increase business and didn't get too concerned if sales began to drop.

The third son was very thankful to have been born into a family that had a business to run and that his father wanted him to be a part of it. This son wanted to be a part of this business and was willing to do whatever was asked of him. He took the time to learn from his Father. He figured out what his own gifts and talents were and found ways to use his uniqueness to compliment his father and to add to the business in new ways. He wanted the business to succeed and to do even more than they were today. He looked to the father as the leader of the business going to him for direction and then carrying out the tasks to the best of his ability. His heart and soul were invested in the business and he cared deeply for the work that needed to be done. He was concerned about the good name of the business, and of his father, and he was careful to represent them both properly and with esteem. He wanted the business to grow and prosper and by doing so they would be able to bring more workers in to help.

If the father in this story was God, and the business was the Kingdom of God, which son most resembles you?

Are you the son who wants nothing to do with God's Kingdom, instead wanting to pursue your own desires and forsaking the work God had for you in his Kingdom, as well, as the benefits?

Are you the son who wants the benefits of the Kingdom (eternal life) and are content to just get in and you really don't care if anyone else gets in? You really don't think twice about your testimony or if there is any more to do. You don't give a thought to knowing more about the Kingdom, how it operates, how you might help, and if you are representing the Kingdom properly. You are content to 'get in' and don't want to be asked to do anymore than the minimum (believe).

Are you the son who wants to get to know God and all that God is up to in the world? Do you desire to be a part of his work? Do you spend time in his word everyday learning about Father God and what his desires are and how he is calling you to help further his Kingdom? Do you want to put the time in working hard for him, careful to represent him accurately, and always trying to increase his Kingdom by bringing more into a knowledge and love of him? Are you trying to figure out your unique gifts and how God wants to use them? Do you care if the Kingdom is shrinking or stagnant? Do you desire it to grow beyond measure? Do you care if one in the Kingdom gets lost?

The first son has no part in the Kingdom of God because he has rejected God, his Kingdom, and exchanged them for his own desires.

The second son will receive the benefit of eternal life.

The third son will receive the benefit of eternal life and so much more. He stored up treasure for himself in heaven and his reward will be greater in heaven.

It's kind of like a retirement plan. One puts nothing away and is screwed when retirement comes. One puts the bare minimum away and has enough just to live and get by when retirement comes. One puts away the maximum he can and lives abundantly in his retirement.

Which son are you?

Which son do you want to be?

Global Christians

It's Missions Week at our church. All of the missionaries we support around the world are here for the week to visit with us and share what God is doing in their lives and in the countries they are serving in.

Last night, the church sponsored a mission night for the youth and their parents. We had time to visit with the missionaries and we had the opportunity to hear at least two country representatives speak. My husband and I attended the presentations on India and Haiti. Our children attended the presentations on the Sahara Desert and Haiti.

The India couple jointly spoke about their 'country of contrasts' where the very rich and the very poor reside.

One thing that stood out for me though was that regardless of one's economic position, baby girls were viewed as something bad.

The rich will find out what they are having and abort their baby girls and the poor will kill their child within the first week of life if it is a baby girl. India is one of the most threatening places on the planet for children, especially infant girls.

This missionary couple has rescued 22 baby girls from infanticide and is caring for them at their center. They also are rescuing girls from other terrible circumstances and sharing the gospel with them. These girls are being saved for God's glory.

Haiti is still in chaos since the earthquake last winter. According to the Pastor, rebuilding efforts have not even begun. There is much to do and they are following wherever God is leading. He said that is all you can do, follow God.

The Haitian Pastor talked about how he developed friendships with the voodoo community and the witch doctors over the course of six months or so. After these friendships developed, the witch doctors invited them to begin to bring bibles and pray with them.

They started a school for the voodoo community and twelve years later were allowed to start a church. The church is the love child of the school. He said when they first arrived there the voodoo flags of identification could be seen all over the community, today there are no more visible.

The Haitian children in this voodoo community have been learning about Jesus in the school and they are the ones bringing the gospel message to their parents. God is using the littlest to his glory!

It was so inspiring to see these people with such a love for God, and for people, that their entire lives are dedicated to the work of God. It was cool to see our local kids get a glimpse of the big things God is doing in the world and to know that even they can make a huge difference in the world, whether locally or globally.