History-Cookbook Fundraiser

Hello All! As readers know, I rarely mix my pastoring and youth leading with this blog as it is my personal blog, but since so many of you heard about the youth group's fund raising history-cookbook Mary Ann and I spent most of the summer working on (and some of you even sent us recipes for it!) I wanted to take a moment to announce: "It is here!" (The applause is resounding, especially from this house!)

If you want to read more about More Treasures Under the Oaks, or request a copy via PayPal (you don't have to have a PayPal account to do so), you can do so at our fellowship's web page: http://www.truelifecf.org/cookbook.htm. We are asking for a $12 donation per book, and all proceeds from the book go to the youth group and the outreach work we do to local youth (neither Mary Ann or I or any individual receive anything for this book). The postage is a little steep for a single copy, but because of our rural location we can't go to the post office to weigh individual orders so we are using flat rate priority envelopes and boxes. Of course, and I mean it!, don't feel any, any pressure to request a copy.

The book turned out wonderfully, and I don't say that because Mary Ann and I wrote it and typeset it. Simply, God's hand was on it. It is 224 pages of local history and photographs and recipes, with a special, large section on outdoor cooking (barbecuing, grilling, Dutch oven, smoking, etc). Many of the stories we recorded have never been in print before as God led us to interview old timers who have since died or moved and whose stories have never been written down in the past. In many cases these old timers gave us their scrapbooks with photographs never published before and told us to take them for as long as we needed and use what we wanted from them. God is woven throughout the book in scattered verses and the section titles, plus multiple of the articles and other writings. We have received wonderful feedback on the book so far, and it is exciting to me to hear how many people are reading it cover to cover who have never set foot inside the church building or will never hear me teaching or read my blog. It is exciting to realize they will read verses from God's written word, hear the story of a Creation-Scientist with a PhD in Evolutionary Biology who used to be an avid anti-Christian and evolutionist (a recipe from him is in the book), read how our area is not a slice of Heaven, but a shadow of Heaven, all as they read stories of treasures, wild-west shootouts, pioneer life in our area, and so much more! To God be the Glory! Whether or not you get a copy, please keep this in prayer as both a wonderful fund raiser for our youth, and as a door into people's hearts and homes in the region that otherwise might have stayed closed.

Happy Thanksgiving, New Year!

As I write this Happy Thanksgiving wish to you all, Mary Ann is in the kitchen, preparing the turkey, and wishing her family a great one on the phone. The girls are playing together in their play area, and the fire is crackling and the worship music is playing. The cows are fed, the coffee and hot chocolate has been had, the sun is out, the frost is melting, and we are looking forward to fellowship this afternoon with a wonderful couple we have grown closer to over the year.

The best part of the morning so far has been the opening of our Praise Jar. Some years back, in an effort to put God at the center of our holidays, we came up with the idea for this jar. (You can see it in the picture of Mary Ann and the girls by the fire—and its lid in the picture of Abigail and I that Bethany took this morning.) Basically, I took an old pickle jar and I made a wooden circle and cross which I then fastened to the lid of the jar.

The ideal is that each night at dinner we bring over the old cigar box (now painted gold and covered in "jewels") that you see the Praise Jar sitting on in the picture. Inside it is a pen and a pad of small sheets of paper. Then, we record any praises from the day—times or instances we have specifically felt or seen God's hand in our family's life that day—and put them back in the box. At the end of the week we read the week's praises to remind ourselves of God's hand and goodness in our life, and then we put the week's praises in the Praise Jar. On Thanksgiving, we spend the day opening it and reading the past year's praises. It is an amazing time of remembrance and joy and praise as so many things we thought we'd never forget, and did forget, are brought back to us.

For us, in many ways, doing this is our "New Years." I say this because we spend the day looking back over the year remembering God's hand in it, and then we empty the jar and start filling it again the day after Thanksgiving. So, in a sense, the year we keep record of goes from Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving.

My hope is to, one day, make copies of all the praises, year by year, and bind them in a book for each of the girls to take to their own homes. This is, after all, the testimony of God's hand in our lives—in their family—and it is the heritage and legacy they carry forward. Biblically, the preservation of the testimony is very important, and Biblical history shows that any time the testimony of God is lost the people fall away. The testimony of God and His hand in His people's lives, beginning with the first pages of the Bible and continuing in to our lives today, is critical to preserve. It is our heritage. It is our inheritance in the family of God. It builds faith and thankfulness, and carries with it power to reproduce. If you think about it, we are all living in the period of the Bible between the last epistle and the book of Revelation. We are, in that sense, still "writing" the work and hand of God—filling in the blank pages until He comes again or takes us home.

So, now I head back to the family and the fire. I wish you a wonderful, blessed, praise-filled day in which God is glorified in your hearts. May His love and goodness break through any barriers in your life or heart, and may the joy of the Lord be your strength today. If you ever want, or need, to talk just drop me a note in a comment. No one will see it if you ask me not to publish it. Let me know how I can help, or get in touch with you, and we can talk. Even if we can't share a cup of coffee and fellowship in person, in this day and age we certainly can share together over the phone.

A Good Week . . .

It has been a good week. I know that it hasn't for all of you, and I am sorry for that and I stand in my heart beside you, but I wanted to share a bit about our week.

Last Saturday I had the privilege of doing a wedding for a young couple who came up through our youth group and who are both moving out of their parent's homes and in to their first home together. They have been dating five years and have honored God with their values and choices and the way they have handled their relationship. We also, this week, got to spend a few hours talking and praying with another former youth grouper who is passionate about walking in God's purpose for his life and not straying from it. Days like those are truly a joy and encouragement to a youth leader!

We had a massive storm from Monday evening through Wednesday morning—8.8" in a little over 24 hours! It is the first time I have seen our ponds full while the grass is still brown! The storm (and subsequent wet hills) brought a peace with lighting our woodburning stove. To commmorate that favorite "first days of a fire" we broke it in by roasting Hebrew National beef franks in it on a stick (thanks, Andy, for introducing us to this tradition!). I have included a couple of pictures of our ponds/property as well as one of our wood stove tradition!

On Friday we were blessed to be able to take a family day and join Rich and Carolyn Lingor on Rich's boat at Lake Lopez for some relaxation and fishing. We went after Blue Gill and, under Rich's expertise and Carolyn's expert opening of the live well, we caught close to forty fish! It was a banner day and we plan to celebrate by frying them up tonight and eating well! I have included a few pictures of some proud girls with their individual catches and with Rich and the net of fish that reminds me of the net Jesus' disciples must have had (a lot bigger, of course) and of the time Jesus cooked fish for the disciples on the beach after His resurrection. I'd say we are following a good precedent!

I have been excited about some of the things God has been showing me this week and last about parallel, interwoven threads that run through history from Creation to Revelation. Four of these threads include:

1) Satan's attack strategy of first inserting doubt in to a believer's heart and mind about God's love, trustworthiness, goodness, Word, and power and then, after doubt works its way in, tempting the believer to think that he or she can find true pleasure, wisdom, or provision apart from God (on their own).

2) The thread of faith that stands in conviction of God's love, trustworthiness, goodness, Word, and power and commits to that conviction. This is the thread a few men and women choose to walk as God's friend.

3) The thread of the cross and resurrection of Jesus, and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God's people, that runs foreshadowed through the Old Testament (and gives us understanding of the Old Testament), and through the pages of history today that we live in (between Acts and Revelation), and on in to our hope of Heaven in the future.

4) The thread of God having a people set apart to be intimate with Him, to minister to Him, and to show His glory to the world. We are those people, heirs of Abraham and Israel and Jesus, set apart to minister to God, to be intimate with God, and to show God's glory and invitation to the same to the world.

I taught on these four threads last Sunday, and will teach more about it tomorrow, and it has stunned me how an understanding of them helps us understand history, current events, our walk, the attack against us, the role of faith, our amazing identity in Christ, and our purpose.

Additionally this week, I feel like God has given me a vision for our monthly family services to teach (and show some awesome videos on) why God's Word, the flood, Creation, the ressurection, etc. are believable and scientifically and historically supported. It is time for the rest of the world to be on the defensive and apologetic for their unsupported beliefs, not for Christians to be ashamed of, and unable to stand strong on, the truth!

It has been a good week. Thanks, all, for all your prayers and love and encouragement.

(These pictures are also on my Facebook page if you want to see them in better detail.)