7 of 7

Amy tagged everyone in her blogroll to post the seventh picture in their seventh folder. Well, I didn't have seven pictures in my seventh folder so I posted the seventh picture in the first folder of the seventh folder.

This is my sister Aliya about three years ago when she played Alice in Alice in Wonderland for the Everett Kid's Stage. This was a modernized version of Alice in Wonderland. She has since been in many other productions, but just recently quit to focus more on high school (hs already!!!?) and Step of Faith things.

...Speaking of Step of Faith, stop by and visit their MySpace. Their CD will be finished in March and will be up for sale. Aliya and my step-dad, Kevin, wrote the majority of the songs on the CD. I am pleased to see all the the Lord is doing to glorify Himself through them. Go see their site, you'll be blessed!

I tag anyone who reads this.

Togo Follow-up ~ Finally!

I wrote this to put in a letter shortly after we got back from Togo in 2007, but was unable to finish it and send the letters because of all of the emotions that swirled around with trying to explain how wonderful our time in Togo was. I felt that any words I typed would not be able to explain how we felt so I never really sent this out. Here it is:

"One of the missionaries we met in Togo said, “You’re never really satisfied with where you are; when you’re at home, you wish you were here (Togo) and when you’re here, you wish you were home.” That statement has stuck with me and I have pondered it over and over again. It is so true! That yearning, I believe, is a natural desire placed in us by the Creator to live with Him in eternal contentment. Boy, I can’t wait to live with Him!

"Our time in Togo was so wonderful. We felt like we belonged there and for the first time, we felt like we were doing what we had dreamed of and what the Lord had for us to do. We met new friends whose passion and love for the Lord pushed us to be more like Him. We met new challenges that taught us to slow down and trust in the Lord’s timing. We also found that there are certain little things, like holding back the rain, that the Lord’s powerful hand does in order for us to take the gospel (or a new Bible in this one instance) to people whom he loves and adores.

"We believe that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and for those who are called according to His purposes in glory. The Lord gave Ryan a special interest and talent in aviation so that He could use it for his glory to share the gospel with a few children who were interested in the airplane while he and others worked on it. The Lord gave Stephanie a special interest in sign language so that he could teach a couple of 4 and 5 year old girls some words to communicate with their families. God gave Ryan and outstanding personality that can make friends with anyone almost instantly, and God gave Stephanie a love for the outdoors and for four wheeling (it’s a necessity during the rainy season). We don’t take these things for granted. We believe that God’s will for our lives is to seek the Lord with all our hearts, and then use the things that we enjoy doing to serve Him."

This is where I wasn't able to finish the letter. I wasn't ready to "conclude" that trip in my mind yet. As a matter of fact, I'm still not ready to. I know we're supposed to go back. The conclusion is yet to come.

Completed!

Our doctrinal exam is done. I cannot describe to you how much of a blessing it was to us. It was so neat to be in a room full of dedicated servants of the Lord and know that they were willing to share some of their wisdom with us as well as to encourage us as we continue on our journey to give glory to God with our lives, specifically in Togo.

Might I also add that Ryan and I slept like babies that night... so did Leslie. ;)

25 Things

1. My husband, Ryan and I have been married for 5 years this May.
2. We have one lovly Leslie daughter.
3. Someday I will have a beagle.
4. I want to live in Togo, West Africa.
5. During the millennium I want to live on Camano Island. Is it too early to stake my claims?
6. I've had 80 stitches on my face. 72 from an Alaskan Malamute bite and the rest from silly kid things.
7. I wear my Great-Grandmother's wedding ring.
8. I had my baby in the car.
9. My least favorite months of the year are January through March even though my birthday is in March.
10. I love to sew.
11. I'm very organized. If you find me when I'm not organized, I'm probably not doing well.
12. My daughter just sneezed all over my laptop screen!
13. My favorite books of the Bible are Genesis, and Thessalonians.
14. My favorite chapters of the Bible are Psalm 139 and John 19-20.
15. I went to two years of Bible college.
16. I met my husband when I was working at a summer camp infirmiry. My husband sprained his ankle. The rest is history.
17. My husband and I are pretty dorky. We both have a cheesy sense of humor.
18. I've witnessed 4 live births not counting Leslie's.
19. I hate action movies with a passion.
20. I hate that the world desensitizes us from recognizing sin as sin.
21. I'm a Dave Ramsey fan.
22. I believe every young Christian teen should go to Bible school for at least one year before pursuing another degree.
23. I grew up as a tom-boy (not by choice). My dad raised us as a bachelor.
24. I like to hunt. Though I've never carried the gun.
25. I've been to Venezuela, Trinidad, Austria, Mexico, Togo, Ghana, Canada (east and west), and up and down the east and west coast and across the country of the US of A. ...all within the past eight years.

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm pretty sure all of my readers have already been tagged.

Election and Free Will

Ok Amy, here it goes.

In response to Amy’s question concerning election "how do you reconcile election and free will?", I think I answer her question below, but indirectly so pay close attention. Let me first address free will and the non-believer:

When I see a sunrise over the Cascades, or a sunset over the Olympics, I cannot help but praise the God who created me. The Bible says that the Heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1). God has made himself clear to all mankind though some refuse to recognize Him as God. Romans 1:20 says “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that [unbelievers] are without excuse.” (emphasis mine) This leads me to believe that the Lord has allowed those who reject Him some choice in the matter of Salvation. Go back and read Romans 1:18-23 to read more about how man seeks after idols because they don’t want to know God.

So, if man has some sort of choice to reject God does that mean that God has predestined some to hell? I personally don’t believe so. God told Israel in Ezekiel 18:32, “For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,…Therefore turn and live!” Now mind you, He was talking to Israel, but I believe the principle applies to this dispensation as well. 2 Peter 3:9 says that the reason Christ hasn’t returned for His saints is because he is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (Thank the Lord! I still have quite a few on my prayer list.) On the flip side, the question often arises concerning Romans 9:13 where it says that God said, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” A deeper look at the word hate (miseō) there is the same word used in Luke 14:26 where Christ says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brother and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” I would suggest that that word is intended to mean to place at a much lower value rather than to mean as in the American context to hate someone and wish for their worst. Ultimately though, it is still in God’s hands. God said “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion” (Romans 9:15, Exodus 33:19) and, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways” (Isaiah 55:8).

Now, regarding the elect, it is obvious that God chose the elect before the foundation of the world for His glory and by His grace (Ephesians 1:3-12). Those chosen were told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved and out of obedience they did (John 3:16; 6:40; Acts 16:31). They believed by their own free will, but they were already chosen (John 6:37-40). Don't you think that if non-believers are held responsible for their unbelief (above) that that would mean that believers would have also had the free will to believe? I am not suggesting, however, that believers are saved through any work of thier own. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation was just through a simple act of obedience that God had already predetermined.

So then, how are some chosen to be saved and others not? I don’t know. Why does God ask us to pray if He already knows the future? And why do some get saved as a result of the faithful prayers of believers if they were already chosen? What if we stopped praying? Maybe our prayers wouldn’t be answered then. May I suggest that God has given us the wonderful privilege of praying for unbelievers that we may have a small part in changing the course of history? After all, wasn’t it Moses who petitioned God not to destroy all of Israel even though they deserved it? I don’t understand God, but I am thankful that He takes the time to hear my finite little mind out as I bring His promises to us back to Him in petition for the lost. And no, by suggesting that the Lord uses us to change the course of history, I’m not suggesting that He is a changing God because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Comments and suggestions greatly encouraged!

A Plea for Help

Hey readers, I was thinking the other day that we could use your help. Would you help us study for our doctrinal exam. Write a theological question about anything in our comments section and we will study your question and do our best to come up with an answer. To help you, here are our doctrinal topics: the Bible, the True God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Man, Salvation, the Church, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the Eternal State, Satan, Personal Separation, and Ecclesiastical Separation. You may ask a question that falls within these topics, or you may ask something that doesn't. We'll do our best to answer them. If we don't answer them on the blog, you can bet we at least studied them. ;)

Doctrinal Exam

Hello all. It's time to kick back in gear our plans for Togo. Candidate Seminar is coming up in March and it's on my mind like crazy these days. We've scheduled our doctrinal exam for February 3rd. That means we have three and a half weeks to be studied up and boy am I nervous! Please pray for us as you think about it that we would have discipline to study, clarity of mind (I heard that peppermint is good to eat when you're trying to remember stuff), and that Leslie would rest when we are trying to study so that we can have good long study sessions.

We plan to fly to Harrisburg, PA in March for Candidate Seminar. We are excited because our friends, the Stoners, will be attending the seminar with us. They are good friends of ours from Piedmont and they are planning to go to Togo too! They have a little girl who is just 4 months older than Leslie!!!

Anyway, please pray for us as you think about us. We've got a lot to do.